Kaleido Colours
by XxAlysxX
Summary: Not many people in the Wizarding World knew about Harry's dream. Actually that would have to be rephrased; no one in the Wizarding World knew about Harry's dream. To be fair it wasn't like Harry advertised his childhood dream and he hadn't practiced for it for quite a while as well. No pairings so far. Set 6 years after 2nd season Kaleido Star and 5th book of HP.
1. Pitch Black

**So I recently got back into Kaleido Star and went to check the HP crossover section because they have _everything_ there and it caught myself gasping because 'ol and behold they didn't have a Kaleido Star and HP crossover. I was shocked and thought to myself "I must create it!" so here I am a few days after because of this plot bunny had started to breed.**

**Though it's not as bad as the Fenne!Worth bunny that makes me want to draw it. Everywhere.**

**Warning: The Kaleido Star part isn't going to come in this fanfiction for at least 4 chapters.**

**Kaleido Star was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

**If you haven't watched Kaleido Star yet you're missing out on a lot.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: **

Not many people in the Wizarding World knew about Harry's dream. Actually that would have to be rephrased; no one in the Wizarding World knew about Harry's dream. To be fair it wasn't like Harry advertised his childhood dream and he hadn't practiced for it for quite a while as well.

Sometimes when Harry closed his eyes he could faintly see the people and lights everywhere, on the stage there were people in all colourful clothing that even though were different were also all the same.

They all had the same style, timing and sense of closeness even if they were meant to be enemies. It had called to Harry, that closeness, the part where they were all just a little bit in a bigger picture.

None of them could be truly different from each other and they were all trying their best to give everyone a show; that is what he could remember.

That is why for at least 3 years straight he tried so hard to be like them, so one day he could be them.

...

...

...

...

...

..

.

It was dusty, which was odd considering the House elves in Hogwarts, in the unused classroom where Ron and Hermione had dragged Harry after a few weeks where Harry had been just fine thank you very much with everything happening so far and had even attended classes!

'Harry! Please talk to us, I think you- it wasn't your fault! It wasn't your fault he died, Harry,' said Hermione firmly, her hand was contracting and retracting by her side like she wanted to place it somewhere but couldn't figure out where she should put it.

Ron placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed a bit.

'She's right, mate. It wasn't your fault that Sirius died, there was nothing you could have done to stop it and there's no way you could go into the Veil. You'd have to be an idiot to get that close to the Ve-ouch! Hermione why did you do that for?' said Ron, his hand now off her shoulder and rubbing the side where Hermione had elbowed him.

'Harry, please just talk to us,' pleaded Hermione.

Sirius had been sucked into the Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries.

No matter what they said it was still his fault. If he didn't lead them here, if he hadn't been here in the first place, if only he could had saved Sirius then he wouldn't be missing.

The shock of losing a loved one had not set yet, it was often hard to realise that, yes, your loved one wasn't going to be around anymore. They weren't going to be telling jokes to everyone, they weren't going to comfort you when you were scared and they weren't going to make you smile anymore.

There were a lot of what ifs and they weren't when a person dies and no one truly knows what they've lost until they're lost someone important to them. Until they realise the loss and accepted that they weren't coming back anymore.

Harry had not reached this stage yet. He was still hoping that this was all a bad dream, that Sirius, his Godfather wasn't dead and it was only a new fear that he has discovered.

It wasn't to be.

'Harry please, even if you don't believe us just _try_ to because it wasn't your fault. It was Bellatrix Lestrange's fault, she was the one to cast the spell. She knew what she was doing and did it on purpose! It is never your fault!' said Hermione, her voice getting shriller and more desperate at each word for Harry to just believe what she was saying.

'It is my fault! If I hadn't gone to the Department of Mysteries fifteen days ago Sirius would still be here! He would have had been back at his place! We could still be trying to get him his freedom that he wanted! So don't you tell me that it wasn't my fault! It was!' yelled Harry at Hermione as equally desperate for her to see that it was his fault.

He hadn't been counting the days since that horrible day, he had just been merely counting the days since he last saw Sirius and wanted to see how long it would be until he could see him again. It was a few days until the end of the school year.

'Oi! Don't yell at Hermione like that!' growled Ron stepping in front of a suddenly tearful Hermione, his body shielding most of her.

Harry was reaching his boiling point faster than he could have had ever recalled.

He hasn't realised yet that the numbness that he was feeling was starting to break apart letting all his feelings oozing out like thick smoke to choke him.

'Just go! The both of you! Go! Just leave me alone!' yelled Harry, his body tense and shaking, a desk started to crack along with an old dusty bookshelf throwing its books into the air where it hovered like snowballs ready to pelt people with.

Hard covered snowballs ready to give people paper cuts with their newly sharpened leaves of paper.

'Oi! You can't just-' said Ron before Hermione's hand stopped him by resting on his arm. The tears still in her eyes but she was blinking furiously to stop them from coming out.

'Stop it. We'll leave for now Harry but please don't shut us out. Promise me that,' said Hermione with a fire in her eyes that said exactly what would happen to Harry if he didn't agree to what she was saying.

'Yeah, yeah, alright, just-just leave. Alright?' said Harry, his whole body deflated and the hard cover books fell to the ground in a series of "thumps" like raindrops against a window.

'Sure, and Harry, why don't you think about something else than Sirius while we're gone, I'm sure it'll make you feel better. At least a bit, think about something from your childhood-' Hermione firmly ignored the low sound coming from Ron like he was in pain '- or even your dream?' said Hermione with a twitch of her lips curling upwards as she remembered her childhood dream.

'What? Like the dreams I get from Voldemort because we know-' said Harry before he was interrupted by both Hermione and Ron.

'What? No! I meant like a childhood dream of what you wanted to be when you grew up,' said an embarrassed Hermione, her cheeks turning a soft pink colour while Ron made a pained noise in his throat again but this time louder.

'Oh,' said Harry eloquently and quietly.

'Will at least try this for me?' Hermione asked once more. Her eyes desperate to see Harry's eyes to see if he was going to at least try like she was trying to perform legilimency on him.

'Yeah, I will, just leave,' said Harry and both Hermione and Ron went to leave Harry alone.

Ron exited the door first while Hermione turned just as she was about to close the door and gave Harry a pitying look that made Harry want to hit something just so it wouldn't be the receiver of that look again before shutting the door on her way out.

Harry was left in that position for a few moments just breathing.

Suddenly it was as if all the strength he had in his legs just disappeared leaving him on the ground surrounded by little chips of wood, dust and fallen books.

His vision turned blurry and Harry took off his glasses to see if there were any fingerprint stains on it and rubbed it on his shirt while his vision continued to blur and then there were was water on his cheeks and it was like something inside of him just reacted to the water as if it was a signal of what was to happen next. His shoulders shook and there was a heavy weight in his chest that he didn't notice before, before the tears happened.

He let go of everything that was in him.

There was no Harry Potter, there was no Boy-Who-Lived, there was no Freak or Boy, there was just Harry.

Just Harry and the faint dream that he had when he was younger.

* * *

**If you're wondering why I replace "s" for "z" in some words is because I'm Australian. I'm going to use Australian British language to type and write. "Z" is for Americans.**


	2. Tea Green

**I can't believe this is actually popular. Kaleido Star ****was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

**"**_Oh crap_**" is thoughts or memories.**

**'**...right, never mind me,**' is speaking.**

**"**realise**" is Australian.**

**"**realize**" is American.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Harry didn't know how long he was in that dusty classroom for but Ron and Hermione were probably worried about him for being in the classroom for so long.

He didn't want to face them just yet but knew that he needed to.

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

_There was noise everywhere but almost none of it was coming from the crowd, only few children were shouting about all the amazing things they were seeing, Dudley included, but most of it was coming from the huge ship over everyone's head and the speakers which were playing the background music._

_Harry could only remember seeing a bit of the actual people but mainly relied on a huge screen showing the main characters in the act._

_It was wet as well and had grey clouds within the stage, it was like magic. Not that Harry would use the "M word" anytime soon._

_The actresses fought fiercely with swords making Dudley cheer and Aunt Petunia gasp every time the swords hit each other. Uncle Vernon grunted and grumbled every time the women would hit their swords together, muttering about circuses and freaks and women showing off their bodies in inappropriate ways._

_The blonde woman seemed to be winning but the purple haired woman was still up on the rope and fighting back with all her might._

_Suddenly the whole ship caught on flames and everyone cheered and gasped as the two women jumped up, and how do they do that?, onto the rope above them._

_The blonde woman had made the purple haired woman drop her sword and it was very impressive to Harry._

_Just as it seemed that the blonde woman was going to stab the purple haired woman, she jumped over the blonde confusing her and got something from her pouch and used it on the rope to get towards the blonde before kicking her sword away._

_Dudley had cheered the loudest before leaning over towards Harry while his parents weren't paying attention. _

"_I'm going to do what that purple haired one did and kick your ass," mock whispered Dudley from a seat away._

_Harry didn't make a sound at that though he privately thought that Dudley wouldn't be able to do what that purple haired woman did; he was too big for that and wouldn't that make Harry the blonde haired woman?_

_The purple haired one fell and Harry gasp and grasped the seat in front of him before Aunt Petunia pushed him back into his own seat again. _

_His heart was still thumping as he deflated again as the blonde jumped off but still kept one hand on the rope and caught the purple one._

_She _saved_ her. _

_All was well and Harry started to clap as he heard others in the crowd doing the same along with Dudley._

_The fire on the ship went out so quickly and the women were able to swing themselves back onto the rope and bowed._

_They looked so happy._

_It was so amazing and so were they._

_Harry wanted to be like that._

_Harry wanted to be like _them_._

Harry let go of his breath slowly after holding it so long.

His eyes hurt from crying everything out and it wasn't manly at all to wonder round with red puffy eyes especially for him as he was Harry Potter for the Wizarding World.

He was meant to be the saviour of the Wizarding World thanks to a prophecy saying that he couldn't live while Voldemort does.

Was it truly unfair to say he wanted to just follow his dream?

Harry let his thoughts wonder to everything but Sirius before they finally settled into a thought.

_Why haven't I been training recently?_ thought Harry subconsciously stretching his legs out as he tried to touch his toes.

Harry let out a groan of pain as he accidently went too far forwards. He really hadn't done this in a while. Maybe he should go back to training again during the summer holidays or even at school? It's not like people could get any more wary of him if he just practiced a few stretches during the school time next year.

It would be nice, he could even show Sirius- no, he can't, Sirius was still missing in the Veil.

Harry let out a yelp as he tried to do the splits like he could when he was 10. Maybe 4 years of no practice did make a huge difference.

All 3 years of practice had seemed to go down the drain. _Damnit_.

Harry tried to stand but came up with his legs shaking from its recent torment and having to hold onto one of the not-broken desks around him getting dust all over his hands.

He should go find Ron and Hermione now…maybe after his legs stop hurting. Well on the bright side, other than he won't be able to have children now thanks to the splits, he had an excuse for the red eyes.

It took a while for Harry to figure out how to stand without hurting himself more and probably looked like a baby deer that was just born.

It took him 2 tries before he was able to walk in a semi-straight line and wiped his hands on his pants in an attempt to clean them, it worked if barely.

He wondered around the castle, only crossing paths with a few people, before going through the hidden passageways around the castle that he memorised. It was nice being by himself but he felt exhausted.

He wondered for a while if the Room of Requirement would give him a bed if he thought about it before reluctantly dismissing the thought. It wouldn't do him much good to avoid Ron and Hermione for much longer.

It was quick to travel up towards the Gryffindor common room door. A bit too quick for Harry's liking but there was nothing he could do about that now.

'Oh dear! You look a right mess, did anyone try to harm you on the way up?' asked the Fat Lady, guardian of the Gryffindor common room and beginner Opera singer, in concern taking in his face and outfit.

'Spriggan,' said Harry just audible enough for the portrait to hear.

'Oh but really you should go to the Hospital wing! You look dreadful,' said the Fat Lady trying to convince him.

'Spriggan,' said Harry louder. He really didn't want the Fat Lady gossiping about this later for the whole world to hear.

The Fat Lady sighed.

'Very well, oh and Harry, your friends are looking for you,' said the Fat Lady as she opened the door behind her portrait.

'Thanks,' said Harry off-handed as he walked through the doorway and scanned the common room for Ron and Hermione.

They weren't there.

Neville and Ginny were as they talked in a corner about something, probably about what their summer holidays are going to be like judging by the hand gestures that Neville was giving and the cat like smile that Ginny had on her face.

Harry stared at them before looking down at his now ruined clothes and went up to the Boys fifth year dorms to go take a shower and possibly lie down before being confronted by Ron and Hermione.

Once Harry got to the dorm room he saw that no one was in the room and felt a bit lighter about it. It's not that he didn't want people around but he didn't want anyone to see him looking like, well…crap.

Harry eagerly walked towards the showers, practically running for one. He just remembered to grab a towel and clean clothes before he actually stripped anything off but once he got those he couldn't get in the shower fast enough.

Who cares if it was still daylight? Harry was going to get his shower. Besides the hot water, almost scolding, felt nice. It was a welcomed delight that Harry loved; it was rare to have the shower for as long as he wanted in the Dursley household especially considering the drought going on.

Somewhere in Harry he wondered if he really should be taking a shower for this long as there was a drought going on but he couldn't feel it within himself to care about it that much.

When Harry got out he was red, bright red and a little bit splotchy where the water didn't burn him. He laughed at himself for being so stupid but got changed anyway.

Ron and Hermione were waiting for him in the common room when he went down there to grab one of his essays that he left lying around before he went back to sleep.

'Harry! Are you…better now?' said Hermione as she struggled for the proper words to say in the common room, you never knew who was listening to a supposedly "private" conversation.

'Yeah, I'm feeling better,' said Harry and meant it. He didn't realise how much he needed to be broken down to his barest parts until it happened.

'Good to have you back, mate,' said Ron grinning happily. If Harry could look hard enough he could see faint scars on Ron's face from the brain attack 15 days ago. He ignored the pang of regret in him and smiled back trying not to look like he was staring too hard at where he thought he could see the scars.

'Did you remember what you wanted to be?' asked Hermione, the curiosity shining in her eyes.

'Yeah, though I haven't thought of it since I got my letter to Hogwarts,' said Harry because he was excited to come to Hogwarts, it first felt like that he got in by being special but now he didn't think so.

'Well?' said Hermione in an expecting tone. Her hands went to her hips in a move that she must have had learnt from Mrs Weasley as she tried to tower over him. It didn't work since she was at least a good 10 centimetres shorter than Harry was.

'Well, what?' said Harry, his eyes meeting Ron's in a way that they make up to mean that Hermione was being vague and her good old self; meaning bossing and imposing but in a good natured way if possible.

'Well, what you ask!' said Hermione in a way that told the two guys around her that she going into a rant. That was before she sighed.

'What did you want to be growing up?' said Hermione sharply attracting some attention to themselves, more than usual at any rate especially since they were known to put Professor Umbridge into the Hospital wing recently.

It seemed that their talking had attracted the attention of Ginny who was curled up by the fire or so it seemed.

'Hey guys, what are you guys talking about?' asked Ginny, pushing her way into the conversation.

'Non-making-ur-alk-bus-hildho-ness!-dreams,'

Both Ron and Hermione answered at the same time making it seem like a baby mush of words.

'What?' said Ginny taken back but the sudden alien speak that the duo were doing.

'I said none of your business!' snapped Ron towards his younger sister. Hermione slapped his arm in retaliation and Ginny got her wand out ready to hex her brother.

'Honestly Ron! Ginny's my friend and can be in this conversation as well. We were just talking about Harry's childhood dream,' said Hermione glaring at any of the boys in the conversation say otherwise.

'Oh cool! I wanted to be Mrs Potter, I mean when I was smaller, not so much anymore now- no offence Harry,' said Ginny before letting out an awkward laugh.

'It's fine, my childhood dream was stupid as well,' said Harry before Hermione slapped him in the arm.

'Ouch! What was that for?' asked Harry while rubbing his arm and throwing an angered look at Hermione.

'Don't say childhood dreams are stupid and apologise to Ginny,' said Hermione glaring at Harry for saying such a thing.

'No, Hermione, it's fine. I don't need it, I know it was stupid anyway, it was just me being star stuck by Harry before getting to know him,' said Ginny maturely.

Harry wanted to make a joke here about him not being awesome already without the Boy-Who-Lived title but thought better of it, the last thing he needed was Ginny going back to being a fan girl.

'Ginny, you read all of the Harry Potter books up until last year,' said Ron giving Ginny a firm look that said "I think you're lying but can't prove it" (it had been perfected by giving the exact same look to the Weasley twins over the years when Ron was at home).

'Oh be quiet, like you weren't star stuck once and got everything about them Mr Krum fan boy,' hissed Ginny. It seemed being a star stuck fan was a common trait in the Weasley family.

'The what books?' asked Harry to empty space, he hadn't really thought that anyone would answer it.

'The Harry Potter books, they're all about, well, you going off on adventures and finding romance with a redheaded female and having two companions. There was one Ginny really liked, what was it called again? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?' said Ron.

'It was Harry Potter and the Hallow Death; it was the last book of the series by that author. There were other Harry Potter books out there but N.M. Tollings was the most famous one. It was my favourite because after a long battle Harry, well you, defeated an evil lord, saved the entire world and a few other worlds and got married to Virginia and lived happily ever after,' said Ginny looking more than embarrassed about reading those books.

'…Right. Can we never speak of them again?' asked Harry as he pulled a face expressing exactly what he thought about those books.

'Of course! What was your childhood dream?' said Ginny eager to change the subject of those books.

'You never did say what your dream was,' said Hermione putting her two cents in.

'It was stupid, I can't even do it anymore,' said Harry referring to the fact that he can't do the splits anymore and the whole got-to-stay-in-Wizarding-World thing due to the prophecy.

'I'm sure the Wizarding World has the equivalent version of it,' said Ron now curious of what Harry wanted to be as well.

'I think I would have had known if they had an equivalent version of it but they don't,' said Harry thinking back to the lights. _Yeah, I don't think that they did have an equivalent of __a circus, they'd probably think it was unimpressive_ Harry thought.

'What is it? Because if it is an accountant then I think that we do have some accountants but mainly use Goblins for it, so sorry,' said Ron while Hermione looked unimpressed at his attitude about this whole talk.

'No, I didn't want to be an accountant. Just leave it, it was a stupid dream that I can't fulfill anyway, well not until after Hogwarts anyway,' said Harry rubbing his left hand with his right, this thumb crossing over the scars that said "I must not tell lies" from earlier this year.

'Harry, just tell us, we're not going to tease you about it,' said Hermione gently.

'Not anymore than we've teased Ginny about her childhood dream anyway,' said Ron adding to what Hermione said and promptly cowered at Hermione's glare towards him.

'No, now leave it. It's really embarrassing,' said Harry and left to go to sleep. He heard Hermione sighed behind him but just didn't look back.

* * *

**Sorry it's so long. It was originally two chapters but I just combined them so we can pick up the pace than something really slow.**

**If anyone wants to read:**

**Yes N.M. Tollings is a reference to J.K. Rowling. I used "N.M." of N.M. Tollings since N and M are right underneath J and K on the keyboard and T is right next to R on the keyboard. ****The title of the book is a reference to the last book as well with Harry's unfortunate accident that I will not say due to anyone who is reading this and hasn't read the last book.**

**The whole redhead love interest is a play on the more recent books/comic books that have the main love interest as a redhead. (Starfire anyone? Just kidding, her old version is probably my favourite comic girl ever. She's creepy but cool in what she says.)**

**Spriggan is a reference to the original actress who played the Fat Lady in the first Harry Potter movie but was changed soon after. Her name was Elizabeth Spriggs. ****Spriggan are also Cornish fae who basically act like the faery version of bodyguards.**

**10 centimetres (10 cm) is the equivalent of 3.9 inches (3.9 in) for those that can't read centimetres. When Harry gets to America I will change from centimetres to inches as the default measuring system. Centimetres is also easier on me as I grew up using them. ****However I just put the current default measuring system as centimetres as that is what they would had used in the UK, at least I'm pretty sure according to my research.**

**I've used cat metaphors on Ginny as that is the way J.K. Rowling mainly described her as which is kind of funny since Harry dislikes cats but whatever floats his boat. So I won't be placing cat metaphors on Harry so he won't curl up, hiss, screech or rub his head affectionately on someone else's limbs.**

**If I do add pairings in this I probably won't be pairing him with Ginny, just saying right now and after about chapter 4 the main focus of the story will be with Kaleido Stage (the actual name for the place where Sora goes. Kaleido Star is just a title for her adventures since she turns into the star of Kaleido Stage). So she won't be in the fanfic very much anyway, Harry will probably have contact with her but not be romantic with her. For that matter it will be the same with Hermione as I do enjoy the opposites attract thing that she has going on with Ron. It was sudden but a bit cute to me.**

**There was a drought in the UK in 1996 during the summer time and had been from 1995-1998 before they got a wet season (1999-2002) though their droughts aren't the same as an Australian drought.**

**Ron brought up accountants because the Weasleys have a squib cousin that is an accountant.**

**Harry says that Sirius is still missing in the Veil rather than saying he's dead because he's still a little bit in the denial part of getting over a dead but mainly in the guilt stage though. He'll get over it but not easily because this has to be able the 4th adult he's show to be able to trust in the books (I go by books over the movies) since he can't trust the Dursley adults that much. Sirius is a less than Dumbledore to Harry as Dumbledore was the first saviour to him while Sirius was going to be the second by taking him away from the Dursleys' for good once he was free. Then Harry did something stupid and accidently got Sirius killed. Sirius was also a direct link to his parents since he knew his father from childhood (James and Sirius are related and I think Harry is Sirius's third cousin) so he was pretty important to Harry. He might not be able to have gotten to know the man too much but he definitely wanted him in his life. So yeah, very guilty and disbelieving. **

**Yeah, I'm a researcher fanfic author but I don't generally place everything that I research down the bottom this time I'm trying out placing all that I've researched and done.**

**I also make Harry sound like a bit of a masochist when I said he needed to be broken down. OTL. Shows how much I've been reading of that topic if that happens.**

**Also with the bit about Harry saying can they never speak of the books again isn't meant to be taken as a bashing to Ginny. He's disturbed that people have made such a book with him as the star and never knew about it before which is why he wants it ever spoken about again. This combined with the fact he was basically told that he'll have to kill someone or he'll die about 15 days before this time adds on a lot of stress.**

Also try saying "Non-making-ur-alk-bus-hildho-ness!-dreams" really fast and now I'm off to go research the money system of Gringotts and the British for the next coming chapters.

Thanks to:

Illusive Man, Windblown Wallflower, kits-hold-their-tears and pococo.

Windblown Wallflower: Thank you so much! I was so excited to see that someone actually reviewed for this. I will try my best on this story and won't give it up!

Okay now I'm going to go do some homework that I was supposed to do instead of writing this chapter. OTL


	3. Red-violet

**I can't believe this is actually popular. Kaleido Star ****was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

**"**_Oh crap_**" is thoughts or memories.**

**'**...right, never mind me,**' is speaking.**

**'**I loathe the way you do that.**' is epenthesizing the word "**loathe**"**

**"**Dear, whoever you are,**" is reading something either website or letter.**

**"**programme**" is Australian.**

**"**program**" is American.**

**Edit: I've now changed 10 pounds with 10 quid and a tenner as thanks to a British slang site has said that no one says pounds and instead call pounds**** 'quid' or if it is a 10 pound note it is a 'tenner'. I should had really done my research there as well OTL.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Not many people realise the significance of dates until a day has already happened and you try to think back to yesterday's date. Time is just a never ending blur that the human brain dimly notices through the change of seasons and sun. Though it can also be measured with a clock if set right.

The date for today was 19th of July, 1996.

It was a Friday and night-time.

'Harry! Don't forget your childhood dreams. Maybe it will take your mind off of things if you think about what you can do towards your dream than anything else. You should go for your dream,' said Hermione as she walked out of the platform 9 and 3/4, which was odd because she usually would have had given a speech about school work than following dreams.

_Perhaps she thought that I needed high grades to achieve my dream?_

It was officially the end of the 1995-1996 Hogwarts year and most significantly, for Harry, another day back at the Dursley's fresh from the train.

The welcome back from the Dursleys: awkward.

The crowd in the train station: busy.

The car ride to the Dursley's home: cramped.

The letter from Professor Dumbledore to the Dursleys: delivered.

The packing away of all the luggage: exhausting.

The grade that the Dursleys would give his effort so far?: failure.

Then again they'd have given him a failure anyway just for coming back to their home.

The parting words from Hermione were _ringing_ through his head, especially the last part.

It was another day, or rather night as the Hogwarts Express took the day to get back into London, at the Dursley's.

It was also going to be mind numbingly boring at the Dursley's home, there were only chores to do and the whole family was probably going to avoid Harry as if he was a leper in the 6th century.

He was right.

He couldn't even get Dudley to give him milk that night anymore.

He has always been able to get Dudley to give him his milk since the time he made Dudley think that he hated milk after a teacher at his old school told him milk was for strong people.

Maybe he should go for runs or something to get back into the shape he used to have before he stopped training for his dream, before he was brought into the Wizarding World.

_Yeah I can do that. It shouldn't be a problem if I use one of the trees in the park like I used to and train on them. I wonder when is the auditions for Kaleido Stage?_

Not that Harry was planning on going over to America but…

Just once Harry would at least like to try out. Maybe if he doesn't die first at least.

Because that whole dying thing really put a damper on trying out for Kaleido Stage.

_Oh but if I do try and want to go over to America I'll have to renew my passport. Wait…what? Where did that thought come from?_ thought Harry as he was getting ready for bed. It was late and the Dursleys didn't want to give him anything to eat.

He'll probably get a slice of bread and banana since it seemed Aunt Petunia was still trying to get Dudley on that fruit diet of hers.

_I'll need to give some bread to Hedwig or at least convince Aunt Petunia to let Hedwig out so she can hunt._

That night all he could remember from his dream was vague sensation of flying, fire, a crowd shouting for him and Sirius in that crowd cheering him on.

* * *

The next morning however was different, more so than any other time he was with the Dursleys. Harry didn't know if it was him who was different or if it was the Dursleys.

Uncle Vernon seemed to be glaring at him more than usual rather than reading his newspaper and steadily going to the purple colour that Harry had been accustomed to through his years at the Dursley's but he hadn't started to yell yet which was the odd part.

Aunt Petunia was also acting weird by the way she pressed her lips together until they were almost white and didn't respond to Dudley's pleading for bangers, eggs and bacon. That was another odd thing as she would had usually done something to make her dear sweet "Duddikins" anything he wanted.

Dudley didn't seem to be acting anymore than usual but he too was acting weird by the way he kept looking over at Harry and clenching his jaw, making it look like he was trying to resist to smile but the tightening of his lips ruined that action hence the clenching of his jaw.

'Is…is there something wrong?' asked Harry quietly, knowing his uncle liked Harry to be as silent as possible during meals. Actually he liked Harry better when he wasn't speaking at all so he could pretend Harry wasn't there.

'Shut your mouth, boy,' said Uncle Vernon as he glared harder at Harry, not even trying to pretend that he was reading his newspaper.

'Mum, can I have 10 quid? I want to go out with the guys today,' said Dudley in a whinging tone. His voice breaking the tension temporarily as before it rose again.

'Of course Duddikins,' said Aunt Petunia as she flashed a warm smile at Dudley and excusing herself to go upstairs for some money.

'Dudley, how about you and me go out for a while. We can have a father-son bonding time away from your mother. In fact I'll tell her right now,' said Uncle Vernon towards Dudley.

'Can I still have the tenner?' asked Dudley, his beady eyes staring towards his father to see if he could still get the money.

Uncle Vernon just laughed heartily.

'That's my son, always knowing what he wants from the world,' said Uncle Vernon before getting up, patting Dudley on his shoulder and walking out of the kitchen. Probably off to tell Aunt Petunia about the sudden change of events.

There were no words spoken from the two teenagers. What could they say? What could they even talk about?

Nothing, which is the amount that they have had spoken to each other since yesterday.

Harry could hear the voices of his uncle and aunt around the front door, no doubt talking about Dudley and how he was growing up. Silently Harry took the plates off of the table, side stepping the foot that Dudley had left out on purpose with ease.

_Perhaps I could train again; I mean it would be beneficial for me to train at least to run from Voldemort…_

The rest of the morning Harry was in a daze. Apparently Aunt Petunia didn't want him outside at all these holidays, not even for chores. This meant Harry suddenly had a lot of free time and no way to spend it on.

_How long can this go for? I mean Aunt Petunia is very conscious of the garden going brown like the next street over's gardens have due to the drought _thought Harry as he wondered back upstairs to lie in his room or do something.

Stopping by Dudley's room he saw that his door was open and there on his desk was his computer and minicomputer. Harry vague remembered that it could be called a Powerbook but he wasn't too sure.

Walking inside Harry had to marvel at what the muggles did while Harry was off at Hogwarts and didn't that sound Malfoy of him? Of course muggles were going to advance but Harry didn't think it would have had been so soon that they were leaving him behind.

_Don't they have a research thing from all over the world called the Intinet that Dudley was once was talking about last year? That sounds wrong. Intevet? Invasnet? How do I know its starts with "I" anyway, it could be Enternet for all I know_ thought Harry.

Harry looked around for Aunt Petunia as Dudley was out with Uncle Vernon on a father-son bonding thing again. Harry was going to presume that Aunt Petunia was doing the washing but he wasn't sure.

Sneaking into the room he got onto the computer and turned it on after a minute or two for searching for the 'on' button which was located at the front, the massive metal rectangle was already on according to the sounds it was making. A blue colour was dominating the screen while the computer turned on the other colours.

_Dudley must have had forgotten to turn it off._

On the screen there was a game of reversal set up with all the red and blue dots on a board and on the left of it was a lot of icons that overwhelmed Harry before he noticed a blue 'e' with a yellow line on it and the name "Internet Explorer" under it.

Harry ever so slowly moved the mouse to click the 'e' and waited a few minutes for the programme to load.

Looking at the internet programme Harry realised that he had no idea of how to get onto Kaleido Stage internet thing so he could have a look at what has happened to it so far.

Noticing the white bar on the top with a 'I' flashing from it he hesitantly typed Kaleido Stage though he had to figure out where the space button was as it wasn't named unlike the letters and shift key.

Luckily for Harry the computer did its job and transferred him to a site called Yahoo! where the first search for Kaleido Stage was a website for it. Harry clicked on it.

It looked great. It was full of reds, pinks and oranges and had words about what Kaleido Stage was about and how to register and had pictures of the actors and actresses.

_Wait a moment, how to register? They put how to register in the site_.

Harry clicked on the words "Registration" when it lit up and took everything in as much as he could.

"To be able to register all registerers had to audition in California where Kaleido Stage was. The audition takes place on the 22nd of August this year. All participants must be there by 10am to register. Any domestic registers must have their home address and any international registers must have birth certificate, home address and passport. Any registerers from under the age of 18 years must have parental or guardian permission to be able to register and work at Kaleido Stage."

_That's it. The 22__nd__ of August is pretty soon and I can attend if I work hard. What the name of Merlin am I thinking?! I can't go there! I can't even join since the Dursleys wouldn't let me go and I have Hogwarts to go back to. I also have a death to look forward to._

Harry sighed and clicked the 'x' button on the website before pressing the screen button to turn off the computer again. He sat there in Dudley's room thinking and imagining.

He was imagining what life would be like if he could join Kaleido Stage and just never come back.

_Too bad that's impossible what with Hogwarts and people would probably try to track me down before dragging me back into the Wizarding World but if I could just try out I think I would be happy knowing that I did try out for my dream._

The front door slammed open. Harry jumped before remembering he was still in Dudley's room. _I'm so dead if I don't get out soon!_

Harry was already on his feet and running out of Dudley's room before even the first foot touched the staircase, he was safely back in his bedroom before Uncle Vernon was at the top of the staircase.

Harry stayed in his room for the rest of the day trying to do stretches and practicing how to do the splits again. His thoughts straying towards Kaleido Stage and only stopping when he thought his body was going to break in two from pain.

* * *

'Dinner!' shouted Aunt Petunia from somewhere downstairs, most likely the kitchen.

When Harry came down from his room he noticed that the Dursleys were just started to eat their dinner. A plate was set out for him with around the same proportion of food that Aunt Petunia had.

Dudley let out a grunt when he noticed Harry sitting down but kept on eating his dinner.

'Boy, you will only be here for 2 weeks. The headmaster of your school will be picking you up,' said Aunt Petunia putting as much loathing into her voice as she possible could.

'2 weeks?' said Harry quietly. 2 weeks was a long yet short time.

_In two weeks it will be around the 4__th__ of August but that is…_

…

_I don't want to go. I don't want to go with Professor Dumbledore _thought Harry, surprising himself with how much he actually wanted to audition for Kaleido Stage but he couldn't get there and had no way of getting the Dursleys to sign the form allowing him to audition.

'What if I don't want to go?' asked Harry to no one in particular.

'What? You mean that you want to stay here with us having to take care of you?' said Aunt Petunia more than a little shocked.

'Ha! Did they kick you out for being such a freak?' said Dudley from his spot; his mouth was covered with that night's "healthy" dinner.

'Is this about Cedric, your boyfriend?' taunted Dudley adding more fire to the pan.

'What! Homosexuality in my household! I should have had left you at an orphanage when we found you! This is how you repay us! With this-this sinning?' said Uncle Vernon, his voice bellowing over the table as his face turned a purple colour very quickly.

'What? No! Cedric wasn't my boyfriend! I saw him die!' said Harry quickly knowing that if he didn't get his word in first then he never would. His body tense as if ready to run away.

'What? You didn't kill him did you?' said Aunt Petunia horrified that she could be sitting next to a killer. She shifted her chair away from Harry's place as if the distance would help her escape if he nephew really was a killer.

'No! I didn't kill him. It was an accident. He was never supposed to follow me and then he got murdered,' said Harry looking down into his dinner, his fork playing with the vegetables by making them move from one end of the plate to the other.

'Did you murder him?' asked Uncle Vernon very seriously, staring down into Harry's head.

'No, someone who was trying to kill me murdered him,' said Harry. This had to be the first time that he had spoken to his relatives about Voldemort or even hint about Voldemort before.

'How was he killed?' said Dudley eagerly to hear about the dirty details. He had never known a person who had seen another been killed before.

'The same way my parents were killed,' said Harry, finally stop playing around with the food on his plate to quickly eat it all up to have something in his mouth so he could stop talking.

The atmosphere was tense at the table once more. No one spoke another word about Cedric or murders and instead had gone to talking about the Summer Olympics and cloning for the rest of the night, meaning that Uncle Vernon did most of the talking to fill the silence.

There was nobody not normal at this dinner anymore.

* * *

**The need to know:**

**Harry thinks he's dying because of the prophecy that he recently learnt of (the prophecy from the Order of the Phoenix about how one lives while the other dies). So I guess he's making a bit of a bucket list for before he dies. At the top of that list is try out for Kaleido Stage.**

**Bangers is sausage in British slang, once we hit America I'll go to American slang.**

**The two older Dursleys are awkward around Harry due to the letter he had delivered for Professor Dumbledore while Dudley is awkward due to the year before and how Harry saved him.**

******£10** back in 1996 then was a fair bit. You could have had almost bought an adult passport with that money as passports back then for the UK were only £18. (Here is the reference for the **£18 passport, it is near the bottom of the page but it is under Passport Fees. This will come up probably in next chapter along with money system of galleons to pounds and back. isn't working so the reference will be on my page if you want to look at my sources.**)

**Whinging is whining in British slang, hence why the Dursleys live in Little Whinging, Surrey.**

**Dudley is a bit stuck in 5th book mode of bully but I promise he will get better. He's one of the characters that I think I will get some character development towards especially as he has just found out about Cedric's death and experienced a Dementor last year for him. He's still pretty childish but we all have to mature at some point.**

**I actually had to research about when the end of the school year would be for Hogwarts as it never did say but I went off of normal school holidays in the UK which from my research is about 6-7 weeks for the summer holidays and placed it at 7 weeks. I also realised later that I screwed myself over as 2 weeks after that, canonly, Professor Dumbledore shows up to collect Harry and they never go back to the Dursley's for the summer holidays. So I'm going to need to rush the passport process, which normally I would have liked for it to be as real as possible but since we're on a time limit of now 12 days (this fanfic wise) I'm going to need to speed it up so that Harry actually makes it to America without anyone really knowing.**

**The computer at Dudley's desk would have had been a Windows 95 as it would had still been new and possibly connected to the internet but would have had required a password and didn't want to get into that I merely made Dudley turn off his screen. The "computer" that Harry is constantly referring to is actually a screen (or monitor if you will) while the "massive metal rectangle" is actually a computer. Internet thing is a website but Harry doesn't know it what with him not being born in at least 1995 to know.**

**I remember having a Windows 98 and man was it slow especially as my school had better computers than I did. I think if I used it now I'd probably die especially as it kept asking for the password to the internet when I wanted to play on the internet. Then I got a laptop and I was all happy.**

**The "minicomputer" is actually a laptop. A Macintosh laptop to be exact, as in an Apple Mac computer, which is called a second generation of PowerBook which means that it has inbuilt speakers, a trackpad and a built-in Ethernet connection. It came out in 1994. Pretty fancy for 1996 I would think and exactly something Dudley would want even if just to brag.**

**Also guess what? Google wasn't invented at the time of 1996 which is why I used Yahoo! instead of google as Yahoo! was actually invented at the time. Google came out in 1998 (which was the year of the Battle of Hogwarts). **

**Kaleido Stage is said to be set in California despite all the background scenery and I found out that the trick used by Yuri when he was in charge of Kaleido Stage in 1st season of Kaleido Star, which could have had been holographics or Pepper's Ghost trick or even 3D filming, could have all been real in 1988 where I am saying Harry went to attend a Kaleido Stage performance which is pretty great for me that everything ties together.**

**On the 5th of July, 1996 Dolly the Sheep was cloned which is why it came up as a topic of discussion and it was fairly recent topic for them, about a week before Harry arrived. The other topic was the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA which became fairly famous for something that I'm going to mention in the next chapter.**

**I was originally going to make Dudley go to the movies in this chapter, hence the money, but when I realised that while Mission: Impossible did come out in 1996, it came out in April 1996. Luckily in this year DVDs also were launched (though only in Japan). This meant that no, Dudley won't be going to the movies to see Mission: Impossible unless there was an cinema in the area that played Mission: Impossible non-stop throughout the whole year as Dudley is at a boarding school around the same time Harry is.  
**

**Also the Dursleys never knew any of the troubles with Harry in canon. In this I'm going to change that a bit as somehow I've gotten it in my head that Petunia would make a great classic tsundere towards Harry (in the platonic sense of course) and this also changes the way Dudley acts around Harry as well, ever so slightly as he matures. I picture Vernon as a god-fearing Anglican Christian of an old church that doesn't allow same-sex couples hence the sudden homophobia but this fanfic will possibly have same-sex couples as a minor pairing/s so sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable but I believe in love is love type of thing and some couples are just adorable together.**

Thanks to:

everHermione, animefangirl0219 and KazzyFreax  for either favouriting or following!

Now to go write another chapter and see where I can go from here. I am also thinking of minor pairings such as Kalos and Sara from Kaleido Star as they're practically canon but it won't be explicit and won't be a major thing. I will probably put minor pairings in but later so it'll be a surprise. Harry won't have a pairing though it will be hinted a bit for something but will never happen as most of the cast of KS is over the age of 21 by now and according to US law it can be considered as sexual relations with an underaged person. Of course there won't be sex in here as it is T rated. I might have to bring in OCs to fill in the gaps of the previous KS cast. Though I am reluctant to do so as I know I'll turn them into Mary Sues and Gary Stus.

Speaking of which if you ever feel as if Harry is turning into a Gary Stu please warn me immediately so I can avoid such a thing happening and give me reasons of why you think that so I can see where you're coming from. Thank you. Though Harry might be a little bit Gary Stu for this part as I need him in America and in Kaleido Stage ASAP.


	4. Alice Blue

**Kaleido Star ****was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

_Oh crap_** is thoughts or memories.**

**'**...right, never mind me,**' is speaking.**

**'**I loathe the way you do that.**' is epenthesizing the word "**loathe**"**

**"**Dear, whoever you are,**" is reading something either website or letter.**

**"**centre**" is Australian.**

**"**center**" is American.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

It was late afternoon when he finally made up his mind of what to do.

_Hermione did say that I should be remembering my childhood dream and what better way to remember it than living it? Besides I couldn't just die without trying at least once. I could quickly go and try out and come back and explain it to Professor Dumbledore._

Harry was looking for his old child passport to see what it said on it and if he could still use it. He doubted it but it was best to check anyway.

It was when he was exploring the garage that the Dursleys had Aunt Petunia caught onto what he was doing or rather the fact he was looking for something.

His hands were wrist deep in dust as he searched through boxes.

'What are you doing, Boy?' said Aunt Petunia from the doorway, taking in the strange sight of her nephew desperately looking through boxes in the poorly lit garage.

'I'm just wondering do we still have my child passport from that time when I was 8?' said Harry looking through another box.

'What do you want that thing for?' said Aunt Petunia now glaring at Harry, not that he could see it as his back was now towards her.

'I wanted to go overseas the mu-er normal way and the only way I can do that is with a passport,' said Harry, trying not to say muggle instead of normal around his aunt.

'The normal way, you want to try to use the normal way after all this time?' said Aunt Petunia, her disbelief and distaste shining through her voice.

'Well, yeah, I mean that is what I said,' said Harry, his voice muffled by one of his hands on his mouth and nose as he recoiled from one of the boxes. There was a family of dead mice in that box, what appeared to be a mother and her babies. He'd have to wash his hands after this.

_They probably never left the box their whole lives and died in there as their mother didn't think of placing them in a better spot_ thought Harry.

'…it's upstairs but if you clean this place up by 5 I'll give it to you,' said Aunt Petunia after a while of thinking.

'Really?' said Harry, daring not to hope that she'd really give his old passport to him as she never did give anything to him important back like this before but still hoping none the less.

'It's no use for me and just so you know we won't be paying for a new passport for you. You'll have to earn it on your own,' said Aunt Petunia, taking in a whiff of the air now and recoiling.

'Just remember this whole garage must be clean including all the photo frames by evening which is in an hour and a half,' said Aunt Petunia before going back inside the main part of the house.

Harry released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

_Right time to do some chores within an hour and a half_ thought Harry before looking around and into the box that smelled horrible.

_But first I'll need a plastic bag, a bucket of water and some rags to clean this place up with. Merlin, this is going to make me knackered. _

Harry rushed to the main part of the house to grab what he needed before he wasted anymore time. He wouldn't put it pass his aunt to not let him have his passport if he didn't get everything done before 5 and manage to find her and inspect his work by 4:59pm.

Harry grimaced at the thought. It sucked getting stuck with chores like this one especially if there was a good prize at the end of the end which usual meant a time limit._ Great, another time where I have to look left, right and centre for things._

He managed to find a plastic bag in the kitchen, a plastic bucket with the top chipping away outside and used some of his clothing that used to belong to Dudley as rags. He even got lucky as he found a pair of old, dirty gardening gloves outside near the withering roses that he was sure Aunt Petunia wouldn't want anymore because of its age and looks. At least he won't be touching the dead mice family now.

It was a dirty job cleaning out the garage. It wouldn't be so bad if the water in the plastic bucket didn't keep on turning brown all the time. If he could have he would have had banished the water and used magic to conjure water somehow instead of having to go pour the water into the garden and also get clean water in the basin on the ground floor before heading back to the garage.

The whole experience was time consuming but he was pretty sure he got everything from the dead mice box to the cobwebs in the corners of the garage. He had to have cleaned everything. Once he was done with everything he chucked the "rags" and plastic bag in the bin outside before checking that everything was in order.

Running upstairs, almost tripping twice before he regained his balance he looked all over for Aunt Petunia though he didn't find her on the 1st floor. He stopped on the ground floor and looked around trying to decide on where he should go. Straight or right? Living room or kitchen?

_Nearly 5, where would Aunt Petunia be at nearly 5? Making dinner, duh._

Harry nearly hit himself in the head for no thinking of his aunt making dinner around this time. She always made dinner around this time, it was her thing.

Harry quickly walked into the kitchen and saw that Aunt Petunia was indeed in the kitchen preparing to make that night's dinner so that it would be ready for when Uncle Vernon came home from a chat with number 15 of Privet Drive since they were co-workers.

Harry was really not looking forward to hearing about number 15's problem and really didn't want to know but he'd probably find out later at dinner from Uncle Vernon.

'Aunt Petunia, I've finished cleaning the garage,' said Harry quickly, the less time spent in the kitchen the faster Aunt Petunia will be inspecting the garage.

'You best not be lying to me, boy,' said Aunt Petunia putting down the knife she was using to chop the vegetables and wiping her hands on the tea towel by the stove.

Harry shook his head and escorted her to the garage so she could judge the way that it looked.

Once they got to the garage she pressed her lips together and looked around the now slightly better lit room. Their shoes now didn't leave any marks on the floor from his half an hour of washing the floor with one of the rags. The box with the dead mice was the plastic bag in the rubbish bin; their rotting corpses slowly decaying within there with the brown stains under them.

The photos and other knickknacks were wiped down from any trace of dead mouse and placed into another couple of boxes that could spare the room. Harry just hoped that Aunt Petunia wouldn't notice the one less box in the room.

It was stupid really but a little part of him wanted to make his aunt pleased at what he did, even if a little but it never truly happened.

Her lips went white after she circled the boxes and car door twice to see if anything was out of order.

'It appears…acceptable. I'll…go get your reward,' said Aunt Petunia, looking as if she was choking on the words she was saying. Her gaze at Harry held distain and walked off.

Harry sighed in relief as she didn't notice the one short box in the garage unless she tried searching for specific items.

This was probably one of the closest times where he gotten a praise from his aunt or uncle for that matter. It made him feel like a kid again where everything that he did he tried for his aunt and uncle.

Harry's throat clamped up and he gritted his teeth together as he tried to stop the incoming emotions swelling through him. He wasn't going to be a nancy boy, especially not while at any moment his aunt could be coming back.

Taking a few deep breaths he quickly blinked all excess moisture out of his eyes and balled his hands, not fully seeing the garage that he was in but dimly aware of it all the same. Harry just hoped that it didn't show in his face, how embarrassing would it be to be caught now.

Harry waited there for about 10 minutes before he decided that no, Aunt Petunia wasn't coming back and he'll have to go back inside the main house. Harry stretched his back before going back down and checked that he didn't leave anything still there.

Spotting the bucket and gloves he figured that the Dursleys wouldn't miss very much if he left it up there. They're probably never look in here again after this anyway.

Harry had to look for his aunt again starting from the 1st floor. She wasn't in her room, the guest room, Dudley's room or his room and she wasn't in the loo as the door was wide open.

_How hard is it to find your own aunt in her home?_ It wasn't as if they had a huge house either! It was pretty normal considering all the other houses on Privet Drive were the same as well.

Walking into the kitchen Harry found his aunt again. She must have had heard his footsteps this time because she spoke to him.

'The passport is on the table. If you lose it then it's your own fault,' said Aunt Petunia, her back towards him while at the cutting board.

'Yes, Aunt Petunia,' said Harry in a flat tone, the type that children use to say good morning to their teachers. It was worn, tired and frankly disinterested in if the recipient of the voice even cared about what speaker was saying.

His aunt made a sound in the back of her throat which he took as a dismissal and collected his passport. It was blue and had an odd reddish paper tucked in the inside of the passport.

Harry took his old passport up to his room where he placed the reddish paper on his bed and flipped through the passport, noting where the multicoloured and different shaped stamps were. His information was at the front of the passport and there was something scribbled on the 2nd page of his passport.

It was expired passed the date in the book but it was still pretty neat that it had where he went in it from the stamps and his personal information as well.

He had to laugh at the person in the photo that was attached to the passport. It was hard to imagine he looked like that when he was almost 8, of course this had to be one of the few surviving photos of his childhood that he had.

_Merlin did I look terrible back then, not that I look any better now but still…_

Harry gently peeled the photo off of the passport for safe keeping until he realised that he couldn't place it anyway without it being ruined other than his passport.

_Well that was rather thick of me_ thought Harry as he tried to glue his passport photo back into his passport without any glue.

He decided it was a lost cause and placed the photo on the bedside table before looking at the scribble from the passport. It still had fresh ink clinging to the other page of the book.

"Emergency passport phone number for the passport xxxx-xxx-xxxx. Appointment has to be made."

Harry didn't know what to think about this. The ink was still fresh and was written in his aunt's handwriting but his aunt would barely let him out of the house this summer let alone, was she actually helping him get a passport on a short notice?

Harry slowly and hesitantly walked down to the staircase towards the kitchen when he heard his uncle's voice booming through the lounge room and went straight back upstairs again. There was no way that his aunt was going to talk about the writing in the passport especially now that Uncle Vernon was home.

He lay down on his bed only quickly getting off of the bed when he heard a crinkling sound and remembered the reddish paper that he had set down only a few minutes prior.

_Almost forgot about this paper since I was busy with the passport._

Opening up the paper Harry froze in shock. It was his birth certificate.

He was born in Somerset; Godric's Hallow, Somerset Country to be precise.

_One surprise after another, huh?_

Harry desperately tried not to crease the birth certificate as he tightly grabbed the birth certificate. It was too sudden and too much for Harry to handle.

_Was the entire world telling me to go and try out for Kaleido Stage?_

Harry gently folded the paper up and placed it with the photo and passport as he started to stretch on the floor. He'd have to take a trip to Gringotts soon to get money for a passport and a return trip to America as well somehow.

_I wonder if they exchange Wizarding money for quid and pence? They should be able to…_

Harry felt like it was going to be a good night that night.

* * *

**The need to know:**

**The storey (yeah they spell it storey) system for the British go: Ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, etc.  
While the American story system go: Ground floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, etc. Keep the British system in mind while reading.**

**A nancy boy is a British slang for a guy being pathetic or even a gay guy but I was leaning towards the pathetic meaning than any other meaning.**

**To look left, right and centre for something is to look everywhere for something, again more British slang.**

**To be knackered is to be tired or exhausted.**

**The number for the appointment is a real number and exactly the amount of Xs are for the numbers. **

**I've also have had to wiki-how to get over a loved one's death which is kinda sad but is going to be more in the coming chapters.**

**I'm basing the house off of the movie version of the house as the book version doesn't go that much into detail for it but found very helpful pictures of the inside of the Dursley house to base events off of.**

**The old British passports pre- July 1988 were blue compared to the modern day maroon passports that came out in July 1988. This would have had been a month before Harry got his passport. I'm placing creative licence to say the Dursleys and Harry got a few of the last blue passports before they changed over. The blue passports had photos stuck in them rather than the laminated photos they used to have in the maroon ones and the printed on ones we currently have.**

**The Birth Certificates for the UK are on a reddish paper, I had to google the images to check if it would have had still been valid for 1981 birth certificates and they were. I also place creative licence to say that Harry was born in Godric's Hallow as his parents were in hiding at that time and couldn't get to a proper hospital without fearing for their soon to be born son's life so they had a home birth and bewitched a muggle into creating a birth certificate. It would have had been Lily's idea as she'd probably want her son to experience muggle life along with Hogwarts. James probably would have had gone along with this idea to keep his wife happy but wouldn't get it.**

**I say he was born in Somerset County due to an essay that I read on the place of where Godric's Hollow would have had been if it was real. The person put a lot of thought into where it could have been and placed a few other possible areas where it could be located along with direct quotes from the book and good interpretation of wording from J.K. Rowling. So I placed my choice there as well as I wanted for Harry to have a birthplace shown in this story. It's really just background work for the story that will probably never show up again but I thought it was nice to just place it in there. The essay is here on my page.**

**Also I finally got an Aunt Petunia character development in.  
Current way I see her: nosy, a gossip, a housewife, wants for everything to be normal in her family, jealous, disdainful of her nephew but can see that the Wizarding World is breaking him a little like it did with her sister and now that Harry has shown an interest in doing things the normal way for her she is reluctantly helping him to get him away from her but also to help her little (Petunia is like 4 years older than Lily) sister's son. The little sister that she knew before she got into Hogwarts at least.  
Appearances is very important to her, in any light possible to make herself seem better than she really is she'll take it. She's also probably experiencing a bit of empty nest syndrome where she's saddened that her son is growing up and wants to keep her (only) child the exact same way as he has always been but he needs to grow up as well.  
She probably now has a bigger fear of the Wizarding World and what they will bring to her family after Harry admitted that someone was trying to murder him. **

**Petunia can be quite a complex character as she is a coward and a spiteful person and quite an abusive mother (as no good mother would treat any child like she has with Harry or Dudley. Harry might not have physical scars on him but I have no doubt that he probably has emotional scars from her and Dudley turned out to be a spoiled brat under her until he matured) and likes to make herself out to be a better person than she really is but she also once truly loved her sister before she was bitter and wanted to be with her and be in her world as well. I think this is also the reason she dislikes Severus Snape. She does want to forget and forgive but she's carried this bitterness with her for far too long and knows if she does forget and forgive then she will be a changed person and is scared of that person.**

**Conclusion for Petunia: s****he is a terrible gossip and a coward and **it is very late for her to fully change who she is now as she is very much bitter but I do think that she does love her husband and child. She only wants her child to feel loved and special in a way that she was never fully able to with a sister as the special and beautiful child out of the both of them. Now I'm changing her a bit, she will still be all of those things but a bit more nicer towards Harry as she thinks he's finally seeing what she has seen all along; the Wizarding World is a terrible place and is not for normal people who realise this. End of rant of Petunia's character.

Thanks to SailorNova007 for favouriting.

Also to SailorNova007: Thanks but I predict that I'll probably bore you guys with my research and character rants soon enough (.n.)

Also sorry but I lied. I'll probably get Harry over to California by chapter 6 at the least. I just had not realise how boring a 12 day time limit could be when there is so little he can actually do since Harry never took gymnastics (he'd be teased by everyone if he did that, not to mention Uncle Vernon's reaction) and is basically self taught about everything and having to relearn it. Speaking of which I'm now off to watch how to do flips and stuff like that on youtube now so I can get him to do more later.

P.S. if you guys find the word "attic" anywhere in this chapter please tell me, that was a typo that I kept writing.


	5. Saffron Yellow

**Kaleido Star ****was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

_Oh crap_** is thoughts or memories.**

**'**...right, never mind me,**' is speaking.**

**'**I loathe the way you do that.**' is epenthesizing the word "**loathe**"**

**"**Dear, whoever you are,**" is reading something either website or letter.**

**"**rationalise**" is Australian.**

**"**rationalize**" is American.**

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

It turned out that it wasn't a very good night that night and that he got barricaded by Uncle Vernon in his room for two days, something about divorce. Two days of stretching and doing the splits, two days of learning the extent of what his body can handle and two days of worrying about what was going to happen about his passport issue.

The only time that he got out of his bedroom was twice a day to use the loo and to take one shower. The food was shoved through a doggy door that was created when he was 12 for this exact reason.

Harry thought about going over to America by magic but there were two problems with that. The 1st problem was that he didn't know how to get magical transportation to America and he didn't think the Knight Bus can travel to America; the 2nd problem was that Kaleido Stage needed to see his identification and passport to say that he was there legally and if he did find magical transportation he'd be in the country illegally.

Another issue was how was he going to contact the number that Aunt Petunia gave him? He could try calling from the Dursley's but there was always someone home and he doubted even if he asked his aunt if he could ring up the number she would let him.

She was being nicer than usual but he had lived with her for a long time. She probably just wanted him out of her life already.

Harry was trapped in the Dursley's house. Even if he had everything he needed for a new passport, except money for it, he still couldn't go anywhere. The last week or so Aunt Petunia hasn't allowed him to go out and with Uncle Vernon locking him in his room this led to a very bored teenaged Wizard.

The only good thing about being trapped in his small room was the fact that he could do stretches as much as he liked and there was nothing anyone could do but it was boring just stretching and doing the splits and trying to see how far he could bend himself.

He tried to pat Hedwig but all he got for his troubles was cuts on his fingers from Hedwig's beak and talons. She hadn't been very impressed with him and how he hasn't let her out yet.

_I wonder if this is how Sirius felt about being trapped in his own house? Sirius…_

Harry sighed as he lay down on his bed. Hedwig was hooting from her cage, eager to also get out of the Dursley's place but wouldn't be able to do so.

'Please girl, don't make such a noise. Uncle Vernon will only keep us in here for longer,' said Harry softly, his head turned towards his owl. Hedwig gave him an evil look, how she did Harry will never know but somehow she can.

'Do it for me? Please?' said Harry trying to get his owl to be quiet.  
'I'll let you go out for a hunt once I'm out of here, I promise. Sometime this week I promise I'll let you out,' pleaded Harry from his spot. Hedwig ruffled her feathers and put her head under her wing as if to say the conversation was now over, please leave.

Harry sighed in frustration. Even if the whole world seemed to be saying to go and try out for Kaleido Stage Uncle Vernon went against the whole world and locked him up here.

There was a sound from the door which made Harry get onto his feet quickly. The whole room was tense. There shouldn't be anyone unlocking the door right now. Harry got his wand out just in case.

The door opened and at the sign of his aunt's head he quickly threw his wand on his bed, hoping that she didn't see the wand in the first place.

_If she did see the wand then I doubt she'll be helping me anytime soon again…_

'What are you doing there, boy?' said Aunt Petunia, her eyes taking in the small bedroom before landing suspiciously on Harry.

'I heard the door open and was wondering who it was,' said Harry hoping that she wouldn't spot the lie.

'Well, stop standing there and get changed. I need you to do some grocery shopping for me at One Stop,' said Aunt Petunia looking like she was daring him to say another word.

Harry quickly got changed from his pyjamas to the hand-down clothes that he got from Dudley. He raced out the door, feeling a slight pang of regret that Hedwig also couldn't get to enjoy a bit of freedom even when he promised her that she would get some freedom.

Running down the stairs Harry saw Aunt Petunia by the door.

'Aunt Petunia, could my owl go outside? She's getting restless and when she gets restless she makes a lot of noise. I mean during the night time obviously around midnight so none of the neighbours see but just for a little while,' said Harry once he got to where his aunt was.

'Has going to that school of yours made you go mad? Of course the neighbours will see that blasted owl flying around here. If that bird doesn't like being in a cage then go get rid of it,' said Aunt Petunia giving a glare almost worthy of Professor Snape's glares.

Harry was almost tempted to give her a glare as well but she did let him out of his room so he kept quite but vowed to get Hedwig outside at some point.

'Here's the shopping list, don't you dare take any of the money. I want to see the receipt when you come back,'

'Yes, Aunt Petunia,'

'Well? Off you go. I need those groceries by 3 and you better take that book that I gave you with you as well so you remember what you need to get. Don't forget the beans,'

'What? What book-'

'No talking back. After all that I've done for you, you'd think that you would have had learnt a little respect for your elders around here but instead you talk right back at me as if I was a total stranger you just met. I will have none of that! Out! Out! '

Harry gritted his teeth but took the shopping list with the money anyway.

_She didn't give me any books recently! So how am I supposed to take a book with me to the shops? All she gave me recently was my birth certificate and my old passport. I doubt that a passport could be a- wait! A passport can be a book! It has pages and writing in it! Why didn't she just call it a passport in the first place?_

Harry grumbled quietly so that Aunt Petunia couldn't hear it as he made his way upstairs to his bedroom again to collect his old passport before heading out to One Stop.

* * *

The good thing about technology is that it is getting quicker and faster with every upgrade, the downside to it is that we start to rely on it too much and forget about the other skills that we have learnt through our years like walking or writing until it was almost non-existent.

Magic is a bit like technology, you get so used to it that when you get back into the "real world" that you realise that you have forgotten about everything else in life that you have learnt or have become slow at doing something.

Harry was experiencing such a thing, actually a few things. He had forgotten how to do the splits and he was now slow at giving money over to vendors and shops that didn't have galleons, sickles or knuts as part of the exchange rate especially when it came to using pence.

It may seem weird for someone to become slow in such a thing but Harry really was. It made him look like a tourist when trying to get money out and it didn't help that he wasn't actually used to pounds and pence in the first place as he never had any money to use when growing up.

It was all very embarrassing especially when the cashier at the till gave him an unimpressed look for taking so long with the exact money.

This was before he asked for the receipt.

That was another cringe worthy memory right up there with Cho's wet kiss and the time his 2nd year Defence Against the Dark Arts professor made him have no bones in his arm.

It wasn't his fault that he has been using Wizarding money for the last 6 years. Pounds and pence just isn't the same as galleons, sickles and knuts!

Besides Aunt Petunia gave him way too much money, Harry privately thought that she didn't even count the money before she gave it to him. She probably just grabbed what was in her purse but if she didn't count the money…

_If she didn't count the money then I could use 10 pence to call the number in my passport. She wouldn't even notice if 10 pence was missing as it is such a small amount._

Harry looked around for the nearest BT phone box which he found about two blocks away from One Stop and called the number in the passport after placing 10 pence in the machine.

Harry just hoped that it wasn't a prank number that Aunt Petunia gave him even if it wasn't her style to do so, social humiliation was more her style in front of many people.

The other end picked up in two rings.

'Hello this is the Passport Customer Service Centre. My name is Sally and how can I help you?' the overly cheerful voice on the other side said, Sally apparently if the name was correct.

'Er…I would like an appointment for a passport made really quick. Is there an appointment time sometime this week by any chance?'

'I'm sorry but to make an appointment for a 1-day passport you need to make a booking at least two weeks in advance,' said Sally who did not seem as apologetic she tried to imply she was.

'Please! I need to get a booking sometime this week since I have to go to America in about 9 days. Please, I'll do anything!'

'Please sir, stop trying to demand unfair and unreasonable demands, we can make you an appointment in two weeks if you wish but anything sooner than that we simply can't do. It is summer after all; many people want to get out of the country to go to the beach, not just you,'

'But I don't want to go to the beach; I want to try out for my dream job over there,'

'Sir, I'm sure that the Queen's kingdom has the work that you want and should simply apply here instead of making unreasonable demands,'

'Trust me, if they had Kaleido Stage here I'd join in a heartbeat and never look back, in fact it would be easier if they were here originally but they aren't. I just need to get my passport. I beg you; please see if there is an appointment time for sometime this week so I can apply there. This could possibly be my last ever chance to join and all I want is that chance,'

Harry heard Sally sigh over the phone and an odd clicking sound that Harry could identify as a computer keyboard clicking.

'You're bloody mad but also a lucky bugger. I do have an appointment free for this week as just recently a guy ducked out of his spot for some reason so I'm meant to ask the person next in line but every time we try ringing them up the other operator said that they're engaged. The appointment will cost you a bomb but if you want it you can have it on Friday the 26th, in two days,'

'W-what? Really? That's ace! I mean- er thank you!' said Harry, the best news all day for him.

'What? It sounds like you've never had a person do a single nice thing for you,' said Sally, the tone in her voice coming through fuzzy. Harry decided that he'd better take the safe option and answer her.

'What? No! I mean I have had people do nice things-'

'I was being- you know what? Never mind. What's your name?'

'Harry, Harry Potter,'

'You can stop impersonating James Bond now,'

'What?' said Harry confused. How could he be impersonating James Bond now? Sure he's heard of the movies and seen a little of it when Dudley watched it on the television but he's never actually seen a James Bond movie.

'…'

'…'

'…'

'Hello are you still there?' asked Harry into the phone.

'Yeah I'm still here. Just remember you're on Friday 26th at 11am at the London address,'

'The what?'

'The London address for Identity and Passport Service and don't forget to get your photos signed by a witness, everyone forgets that one usually,'

'Oh right. Thank you Sally,'

'Good luck with your dream job,' said Sally before she hung up leaving only the dial tone for Harry to listen to.

A large grin spread over Harry's face. It looked like he was heading to London in two days for an express Passport.

When he arrived at the Dursley's place his aunt glared at him suspiciously but ushered him up the stairs none the less after he handed over the groceries, his hand tight around his Passport.

* * *

**Special info time:**

**Anyone else remember the doggy door from the Chamber of Secrets? I sure did along with Harry's arm having no bones. **

**It's also interesting reading essays on J. 's work as you start to notice a lot more symbolism that wasn't there before and why it is there in the first place. I would give you an example but I'm currently using that symbol in this story like J. used.**

**Harry didn't know that Snape and Petunia knew each other and this is probably why she knows his glares. Snape was a sad child when he was younger.**

**BT is British Telecoms and they used to have a lot of phone boxes around until they started to realise that it costed more to have them up than it brought money in but in 1996 quite a few of them were still up. They did used to cost 10 pence to use in 1996.**

**One Stop is the smaller chain sister shop of Tesco's which is used for grocery and smaller towns like I imagine Little Whinging is. Although I still don't fully know what Tesco's does and what their prices were in 1996. That last part especially bugs me which is why you don't have a part where Harry is looking at different brands and comparing them like a single uni student out for their grocery run.**

**For those that are American to ring up someone in the UK means to call them not to go scan them at the check out of a grocery store.**

**Ace means something like Brilliant in British slang.**

**Being bloody mad means you lost your mind in British slang.**

**Being a lucky bugger though means that you are a lucky person in British slang.**

**Sally is an OC, whose name I may or may not have had borrowed from the BBC Sherlock, who I imagine is quite the pain in the ass but if you spill your hopes and dreams at her she'll crack and help you out. You know, the classic NPC. She will not be returning. Also apparently she's psychic as Harry never told her his nearest location, oh well. Another inconsistency spotted! She also seems to expect Harry to know where the Identity and Passport Service place is. :T **

**NPC is Non-Playing Character for those that don't play video games.**

**As the first James Bond movie came out in 1968 I am fairly sure that Sally and Harry know of James Bond and his famous catchphrase/name.**

******The Identity and Passport Service is no longer called that but rather Her Majesty's Passport Office. It's at 89 Eccleston Square, London. Had to google map that place...now need to find out where the Leaky Cauldron is in the real life map. This calls for more research!**

******Yes Her Majesty gets capitals as we are referring to the Queen of the United Kingdoms and Northern Ireland (thank the world for Hetalia and England's full name).**

**The appointment time for express 1-day passport is actually before 11am on Saturdays in London but I'm guessing that they start at 8am on weekdays and they finish at 4pm in London weekdays. I unfortunately don't know what happens in 1-day passport interviews/meetings as I never needed it so sorry if the next chapter seems wrong to those that have had gone to one of those. Also if you had please PM me or something to tell me what happens in there. I desperately want to know, and the cost. I would also like to know how much it costs although I have a price in mind if you guys can't tell me based upon how much a passport costs back then and the current charge for a express 1-day passport. **

Welcome back to the latest filler chapter until we get the real part of the story rolling. I predict that we will have only 2 more chapters to go until I have to switch to the American slang. Huzzah! I'm excited for it although the next chapter might be short so I can have a thrilling go to America chapter.

Thanks to:

Heartless-and-Suicidal, pokermaniac039, TwilightMelodiac, anime-MPC6 and VanillaDreamFran for favouriting.

Tristan Blackheart, pokermaniac039, TwilightMelodiac and VanillaDreamFran for following.

Sorry for the late update but I'm a student, so I have studying and stuff like that to do for the rest of the year. The updates will be irregular and sometimes not even worth reading so I appologise in advance. That and video games taking up my time. Oh and research for chapters, that takes a bit of time as well especially if I get information wrong and have to re-write parts of chapter like for Chapter 4.


	6. Russet Brown

**Kaleido Star ****was created by Junichi Sato and written by Reiko Yoshida while HP belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

_Oh crap_** is thoughts or memories.**

**'**...right, never mind me,**' is speaking.**

**'**I loathe the way you do that.**' is epenthesizing the word "**loathe**"**

**"**Dear, whoever you are,**" is reading something either website or letter.**

**"**equalled**" is Australian.**

**"**equaled**" is American. (I actually have a proper book to tell me Australian vs American language now! \(=A=)/)**

**I appologise in advance about how long this chapter is, it's just I wanted to do everything in one day (chapter wise anyway) and then it just snowballed down from there. I hope nobody minds.**

And we still aren't even in America yet, even if it kills me by God Harry is going to go to America in the next chapter! I'll do it with my dying will!

* * *

**Chapter 6**

The next day Harry realised his fatal flaw in his plans. How in Merlin's name was he meant to get the funds for a passport and probably an airplane ticket to California? Harry didn't know the exact prices for an airplane ticket but he did know that it was pretty expensive from what he remembered from his childhood compared to a car trip to the country.

Harry needed funds and quick.

However it wasn't like he could ask for money from Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon and he didn't want to steal either because they would defiantly notice that much quid missing from their draws.

Well actually Harry knew where he could get funds from but he had no way of getting to Gringotts bank in the first place as it either costed money that Harry didn't have or a lot of begging towards his aunt which he didn't want to do.

Harry let out a pained groaned and balled his fists into his eyes as he lay on his bed.

_Why was everything so hard to do on short notice? If only I had the rest of the summer I wouldn't need to rush everything. Come on, think Harry, how can you get to London quick?_

The first thing that came to mind was the Knight Bus but how would Harry be able to afford the ride?

Not to mention Aunt Petunia would probably stop being nice to him if she found out that he was using magic related things again after he told her he wanted a break from it all. Maybe if he started to walk right now he could be in London by tomorrow?

The door to his room slammed open.

Harry froze up. He probably looked wide-eyed as well if he could have a look at himself except he didn't have any mirrors in his room (and what a blessing from Merlin that was, as all of the mirrors he's been with recently keep trying to give him fashion tips).

There standing in his doorway was a baby wha- Harry meant Dudley. _Dudley, not a whale, stop thinking of Dudley as a whale. You're going to slip up sometime and really call him a whale if you do that._

'What do you need…Dudley?' said Harry awkwardly as he actually had to remember that Dudley's name was actually Dudley and not a name of an animal. Dudley turned to look out the door as if he was ashamed of even stopping by Harry's door.

'Pothead, I heard that you were getting your freakishness-' Harry flinched when Dudley said "freak" and tried to pretend that the word didn't affect him in any way possible.

'-out of our lives for good. Is that true?'

'Where did you hear that from?' asked Harry warily. If Dudley started to sprout that out around the town then all of his plans could be ruined.

'Mum. She said that you were leaving because you finally realised how much of a disgrace you were to the family,'

Oh how Harry wanted to punch his smug face in just like Hermione did to Malfoy. He was just as annoying as Dudley was right then. Unfortunately Harry couldn't afford to get in trouble, not even for punching Dudley although considering that Dudley had taken up boxing lessons it would still probably end with Harry with a black eye.

'This family wouldn't know the meaning of disgrace if it flashed coloured lights around it and hexed itself,' muttered Harry. The problem with everything going your way was the fact that you tend to forget what a brain-to-mouth filter was sometimes. Harry had plenty of times when this happened in the past and generally his uncle had put a swift lid on that happiness.

'What was that?' said Dudley, squinting his beady eyes at Harry. He still hadn't moved a centimetre from the doorway; in or out of the doorway.

'So what if it is true? Are you here to make fun of me?' said Harry.

'Piers' mum volunteers in a soup kitchen every other week. Piers tells me loads of stories about the type of people that go there. If you do go on the streets you'll probably end up like them, you know?'

'Well done, you know how to use volunteers in a sentence. Are you just telling me this to scare me? Because it isn't like I'm planning on ending up in the streets,'

'Of course you're going to end up in the streets. You're getting kicked out of the house,' said Dudley while rolling his eyes.

_That idiot thinks I'm the slow one! Who does he think he is? I'm the one that did part of his homework during Primary School and the one to drink his milk!_

'So great to know you think so highly of me that I'll automatically go to the streets. If you're here just to talk about this then you can go,'

'No way! Anyway since I now know you're going to the streets you can have this; it's so you can buy breakfast for the first few days,' said Dudley holding out a ten quid note. Harry stilled whatever retort he was going to say next and tried not to show any weakness like pinching himself. It would be a Dudley thing to pretend to give him money and take it back immediately or even tell his father later so Harry would be kicked out of the house faster.

Harry drew his eyebrows together as he processed what was exactly going on.

'Get. Out.'

'What?! I'm giving you a tenner and you tell me to-'

'Get out, Dudley. I'm not going to fall for that trick,'

'What are-'

'The trick where you get me in trouble later for stealing your money that you gave me. I fell for that once before, I'm not going to fall for it again. So, just get out,'

'I'm going to leave it right-' said Dudley slowly moving backwards with his eyes wide open but not much of the blue colour was able to be seen as he let the note fall to the ground of Harry's room.

'Out!' shouted Harry. He watched his vicious satisfaction that Dudley took off running.

'Why now?' groaned Harry with his fists in his eyes again. He was so close as well. He didn't want their attention now.

He didn't want them approving of him for the first time what had to be at least twelve years or ever actually as he didn't have many memories from before he was five (the memories of his mother dying and Hagrid flying him over not withstanding).

_If only they can leave me be. If they leave me be then I can forget that I was ever given to this family. Why?_

Harry looked at the ten quid note that was lying on the ground. If his aunt or uncle catches that note around his bedroom then he was screwed. He could say goodbye to all of his dreams right now and-

His dreams.

Harry let out a string of magical swears as silently as he could.

He needed to do so much but there was so little time and why didn't he ask for Hermione's Time Turner before they destroyed the Department of Mysteries?

He could have a version of himself right now in London if only he had a Time Turner.

Harry sighed as he got up from his bed.

_I might as well take the ten pounds and hide it somewhere._

He hid the money under the loose floor board in his room because the Dursleys' would never look under the floor boards to check if he was hiding things.

It was almost noon and it was so boring for Harry just to be lazing around his room. He should be out somewhere but his body was stilling him to just laze around like a good for nothing Aunt Petunia always called him, besides it wasn't like he had any mone-

Harry could hit himself. Quite honestly the urge to bang his head against a wall was quite high at the moment. He spent the whole day moping around because he didn't have any money to use to get to London and what happens when he does get money? He still mopes around as if he didn't have any money.

Harry grabbed the tenner with a few coins that he was able to find and stuffed it in his rolled up pants what were at least two sizes too big for him, swinging an old worn out backpack on his shoulder and took the stairs, two at a time, to the first floor.

'Aunt Petunia I'm going out for a while! I'll probably be back by dinner!' yelled out Harry as he raced out the door, not giving any time for his aunt to respond. He already knew if he was late for dinner that he probably won't be having anything to eat despite the fact that his aunt throws away any scraps of food from dinner in the bin if they weren't eaten by then.

* * *

It was a good four kilometres to the bus station from the Dursleys' house but that didn't stop Harry from running all the way there. The downside to that was he hadn't run that far in five years and was rather unfit to make such a long distance run without warning.

As Harry tried to get his breath back from the far distance running that he could have had sworn he could do a few years ago (and maybe Quidditch wasn't the best sport to keep in shape admittedly) he looked for the signs of if the bus had came yet or was going to come anytime soon.

There wasn't any.

Harry groaned as he looked at the bus timetable that showed all the important buses and where they were headed and if Harry remembered correctly he was looking for a bus that was headed to Guildford so he could catch the train to London.

_Four hundred and seventy-eight, right I need the four-seven-eight bus to Guildford…_

Harry felt a heavy weight in his stomach when he realised that the four hundred and seventy-eight bus to Guildford comes at 12:03pm or rather did come at 12:03pm as Harry wasn't quite sure about the time as he didn't have a watch on him. He did however know that it was pass or around noon from the shadows on the ground.

All Harry wanted to do now was curl up into a ball, he was going to miss the bus, be late to get money from his Gringotts account and not be able to take a passport photo as well as be late to get his photo signed and-

…and Aunt Petunia was not able to sign those photos. She was blood related, only strangers that knew him for a long time were able to sign photos right?

He had no one like that as no adults willingly spent time with him when he was growing up and all the adults that he knew now were magical, which Harry defiantly did not want them signing them as they could figure out what he wanted the passport photos for.

Harry covered his ears and closed his eyes, just listening to his heartbeat that could be heard from his hands. Just concentrating on that sound and slowly, ever so slowly, relaxed.

A hand touched his shoulder without the backpack strap on it and he froze immediately, stiffing up then relaxing (it only hurt more if you stiffened up, relaxing and going with the movement was the best way. The less resistance the better for everyone involved).

'Watcha kid, alright?' said the voice connected to the hand on his shoulder.

'Er, yeah, I'm all right. All right?' said Harry, his eyes now open, looking at the older female with wispy grey and red hair.

_Probably what Mrs Weasley's hair is going to look like in the future._

'Yea' I'm alrigh' too. Anyway, wha' bus are ya' waitin' for?' said the older woman, softly with kind eyes that seemed like the norm for many women her age.

_Defiantly Mrs Weasley in her older age, next thing I know she'll probably be forcing food down my stomach._

'Er, four hundred and seventy-eight to Guildford,' said Harry awkwardly.

'Mam,' Harry tacked on the end when he realised that he didn't know the proper term to address an older woman like this.

_Would it have had been this awkward if I knew any of my grandmothers?_

The older woman shot out a bark of a laugh that sounded a bit wet at the end and trailed into a few deep coughing fits allowing Harry to see her yellow stained teeth.

'Sorry, I've got a bit of a cough lately so I sound wet but ya' don' need to add on the end "mam". Ya' parents must to be proud of ya' for usin' such manners, 'though I've never been called "mam" by a kid these days. The rest of 'em are cheeky these days. Luckily for ya' I went and stopped the bus to see how ya' were doin', if I hadn' then I would have had gone straight passed ya' and ya' would have had missed the bus,' said the red and grey streaked woman.

_No it wouldn't have had been so awkward with a grandmother around…_

'Wait? What bus?' said Harry as he took a step back to see that behind the old woman there was actually a bus, a rather normal sized bus perfect for carrying thirty people on board with a few people already on board and looking quite annoying or indifferent to the fact the bus had stopped.

_How in Merlin's name did I not notice the bus right behind her?_

'Yea', the four hundred and seventy-eight, ya' quite lucky for lil' old me to have stopped. I thought ya' were havin' some kind of mental breakdown and I couldn't leave ya' there,'

'Yeah, I thought I missed the bus,'

This sent the old woman into another laughing fit complete with wet cough at the end.

'Ya' a strange kid, havin' a mental break down for missin' a bus. Oh well, chivvy alon' we don't have much time to waffle 'though I'm easy but my boss ain't! Now let's get on shall we?' said the old woman cheerfully.

Harry cracked a weak smile at the thought of being called strange but got on the four hundred and seventy-eight all the same.

'That's one ninety for the ticket. Take seat over from me so I can keep an eye on ya', someone has to wit' these polite boys otherwise ya'll be takin' in by the bad ones and we need all the good boys we can get,' said the woman in an loud and over cheerful voice though she still had the kind look to her eyes that Professor Dumbledore didn't and keep eye contact with him the entire time even when he handed over the tenner and got his change back.

_Maybe that's because she seems to be happier than Professor Dumbledore?_

'Have ya' been bored by old woman stories yet?' asked the woman as she put the bus into gear and started off on the road.

'Er, no, I can't say that I have unless you count Mrs Figg down the road,'

'I don't know about any "Mrs Figg" but I can tell ya' stories that will make ya' blinkered brain try and leg it to get away from the boredom,'

Harry suddenly realised why she seemed different from Professor Dumbledore; she didn't have an ulterior motive like war but instead she wanted company. Something warm filled him, only a little bit but it was enough for him to _feel_ warm. It felt like what he felt when he was with his friends; tiny bubbles that popped to release happiness and warm himself up inside. He was wanted merely for his company and what made him feel better was that this woman didn't know who he was or what he did in his past but wanted his company anyway.

'Talk all you want but you can't do that because I'm sure your stories will be great,' said Harry with a small blush on his face.

_Oh Merlin why did I say that? It was so embarrassing!_

The older woman sent out another round of wet laughter as she concentrated on the road.

'Wha' a lil' charmer ya' are but sure, if ya' want me to bore ya' then it's fine. Let's see, what about the time during my childhood…'

Harry listened to the stories from the old woman as they washed over him, giving him a small bit of _something_ that he couldn't name as he absorbed everything. He didn't know what the something was but figured he felt it before.

_If I had a grandmother to talk to before this it wouldn't have had been so awkward at the start but as I don't have one…I don't think that I would have had appreciated as much…_

* * *

The bus ride didn't have any major slip ups and didn't stop for very long unlike when the bus driver, Mrs Rosemary Richmond

("At least call me Aunt Rosemary if ya' can't call me Rosemary,"

"I'm sorry I just- I'm not comfortable calling you by your first name Mrs Richmond,"

"And ya' make me uncomfortable by callin' me Mrs Richmond, it makes me sound older than I am and no woman wants to be their true age,"

"I really don't feel comfortable calling you by your first name,"

"Then call me Mrs Rosemary"

"But that's your first name! It feels like it's your last name now!"

"Exactly. Ya' will be callin' me by first name by this bus trip kid,"

"How about I just call you Mrs Rosemary Richmond?"

"That's quite a mouthful, are ya' sure?"

"More sure of anything in my life,"), finally stopped to let the people going to Guildford out.

'Now ya' be a good boy and leg it to the train station, ya' only have a few moments now otherwise ya' train will be gone and don't ya' forget my stories ya' hear! Cherrio!' said Mrs Rosemary Richmond.

'I won't Mrs Rosemary Richmond! Bye!' said Harry as he got off the bus before walking straight back in for directions of where to go for the train station earning another wet laughter.

Harry ran to the train station hoping that the train hadn't already went yet but that hope was dimly lit.

The ticket booth was only manned by one person who looked incredibly bored for a person who worked during the school holidays when there should be a good fifty students roaming around eager to go to London for the day.

'Ticket for one to London,' said Harry as he huffed and puffed all over the screen separating the two people. The guy who was behind the counter glared at Harry for having the audacity of breathing all over where he was working before asking for the money.

'W-what? Could you repeat that?' said Harry with his jaw hanging. This earned him another glare from the guy and really he wasn't that older than Harry and he didn't need to put up with this.

'Ten quid for the 1:15pm train,' said the annoyed looking guy.

'Has the one o'clock train already gone?' asked Harry as he riffed through his pockets for the change he got and the few coins he happened to find at the Dursley's place.

'Well it's a little late now since it's almost ready to go,'

'I want the one o'clock train,'

'Look if we do that then you can't get a refund since it probably has ready left,'

'Has it left?'

'No-'

'Then I can still make it,'

'Your money,' said the guy nonchalantly before printing out a ticket while Harry dumped all his change on the counter and hoped he had enough for the ticket.

Just enough.

He had just enough money for the ticket but nothing else now and if he couldn't get to Gringotts then he really was homeless. He doubted that the Dursleys would travel all the way up to London just to pick him up.

'You better leg it because we don't do refunds for twits,' said the guy and Harry had the strong urge to make a hand gesture that would have had been unfit for any older woman to see however Harry had a train to catch.

'Prat!' shouted Harry as he ran with his ticket and it probably wasn't the best idea to do to a person that allows you to catch trains and doesn't refund you but it did make Harry feel slightly less annoyed in general.

'Last call for the Class four hundred and fifty-five to Waterloo, London to board. Last call for the Class four hundred and fifty-five to Waterloo, London to board,' rang a voice throughout the train station in a distinct female voice. It just made Harry run that much faster for the train.

The door had almost just shut when Harry put his hand through the gap and kept it there as the door shut on his hand with his other hand on his mouth to muffle the small scream that came from his throat and very possible choice of words towards the person that shut the door.

_Merlin's beard!_

'All right?' asked a voice and Harry felt a great weight off of his hand.

'Yeah, all right?' said Harry though his voice was higher pitch than it normally was and maybe a bit hoarser but Harry ignored those things.

'You got a ticket for this train?' and, now that Harry could see the person he was talking to and not just a cluster of pain inside his head, it turned out to be an older man with dull brown hair who probably had as much fat on him as he did muscles with a belly as well wearing an odd yellow and white sleeveless cardigan over his working clothing.

'Yes, it's right here,' said Harry showing the crimped up paper from his hand and showed it to the guy.

'You best be getting in though try not to do that again, I imagine it was rather painful since we need to slam these doors shut up tight to avoid people trying to unlock the doors themselves,'

'Yeah, I noticed that,' said Harry as he cradled his hand to his chest and hoped to Merlin he didn't break anything.

'Sarcastic one, aren't you? Well chivvy along we're on a tight schedule now,' said the man as he pulled Harry through the door before he closed it back up again.

'Well? Go find yourself a seat and I'll keep this part-' the man held up a short part of the ticket he had torn off '- and you keep the rest,'

Harry just grabbed his part of the ticket and left to find a seat on the train. He didn't even manage to run that far as the bus stop and train station were only five minutes from each other and the bus ride to Guildford was fifty minutes long.

He found two empty seats after looking for them next to a woman and her young child and dumped his bag next on the chair next to him so no one else could sit there while listening to the excited chatter of the young girl.

_It was going to be a long time until I get to Waterloo_ thought Harry as he listened to the young girl and the sound of metal scrapping against metal.

* * *

It was a long time, almost an hour for the train to get to Waterloo.

Harry yawned as he walked out of the train, his hand still throbbing a bit, and rubbed his eyes a little to get rid of the sleepy feeling. He stretched out his arms as far as they could go almost hitting other people as they walked by and called him various names that he heard all before.

He wondered around a bit looking for a map, because surely they must have a map here even if only tourists use it. There was one showing the map of London with a huge red tag saying "You are here" on it to indicate where you were on the map.

Harry hovered around it using his finger to trace where he needed to go to walk there as he currently didn't have any money on him.

_If I trace my finger on this map one more time I think I'll be tracing it in my dreams._

Harry sighed before starting on his walk. It would have had been more interesting to just walk around and see all the tourist sites if he wasn't on a dead line and it was almost 2:10pm according to a clock within the station.

Harry groaned as he made a wrong turn again onto a street that was either the opposite side of what street he wanted to go on or was on the opposite end of the street and just wasn't paying much attention to the street names too much.

Luckily for Harry it was just the opposite side instead.

_Straight then turn right at the next traffic light, keep going straight then turn left then diagonally and Charing Cross should be…_

'…right here,' murmured Harry as he turned onto the right street and travelled straight looking for The Leaky Cauldron. It was, of course, on the other side of the street forcing Harry to Jay-Walk across to get to the pub.

He paused for a moment allowing the natural cover of the magic hiding The Leaky Cauldron hopefully (he should really check behind the spells of stuff like this or even help Hermione with the search) wash over him before he actually took in his appearance in the reflection of one of the semi-dirty windows.

Harry then realised what a bad idea this truly was. He still looked like himself. He wasn't even wearing any cloaks or anything and only had his wand tucked in his bag to help him. He didn't even know if Voldemort had attacked anyone recently! He needed to look different and fast.

Harry took off his glasses and placed them in his pocket, he hoped they wouldn't smash, and messed up his hair so that his fringe was in the way of his eyes, and hopefully over his scar, before making his eyes look droopy and kept his eyes to the ground.

He shuffled in through the door and just kept walking with his back hunched over and hands by his side.

'Wotcher! You!' said a semi-familiar voice of Tom, the Landlord of The Leaky Cauldron. Harry tried not to look at Tom just in case he went spreading around the rumours that he was there.

'Y-yes?' said Harry in a lower octave and tried to make himself sound as hoarse as possible on short notice. He also added in some coughing to keep Tom away from him.

'Where's ya' cloak?' asked Tom as his feet shuffled around.

'I-I've f-f-f-forgotten it, sir,' said Harry in what he thought was the worst impersonation of Professor Quirrell that he ever heard, not that he wanted to sound like Professor Quirrell or even impersonate him.

'Her' I'll lend ya' on'. Jus' don' be forgettin' it again. Thes' are dark times especially if ya' goin' ou' ther' an' don' go afta' the person who robs ya',' said Tom as he moved away, presumably to get him a cloak.

Harry took this opportunity to look around the pub. There were considerably less people around than usual and all the people who he did look at stopped talking before continue talking but in lower tones when he looked away.

'This is bollocks! Who does Potter think he is? Doesn't he know this isn't a game? Look at this Lyrae!' said an angry man in one of the corners with a female companion with him, his face was flushed red and Harry got ready to bolt from him, especially as he was talking about him.

'Look at what is on the cover, right on the cover! This is disgraceful! Look at what he is doing to our community! Doesn't he know better? What kind of education did he have before going to Hogwarts?' ranted on the red-faced man who waved a newspaper back and forth as if to prove his argument or at least Harry thought that was what he was doing since he couldn't see the object clearly just a whole lot of red around where the face was meant to be, white swaying around (it could also have had been a wand for all Harry knew), a black cloak and skin colour.

'Gruis! Stop making a scene, you're scaring people!' said the woman, Lyrae, over to the male from where she was sitting although Harry first mistook her for part of the furniture at the pub and couldn't quite see where she began and where the chair ended.

'I don't care! This boy has to know his place! I've put up with the disgraceful love triangle a few years back and his claims that he-who-shall-not-be-named was back but he brought all of this on us! He claimed that the Death Eaters were in action again and what happens? We now have Death Eaters all around us! The Ministry was right to say he was delusional, what do you think would happen to us if he thinks that we're not worth anything to him and rather have us die? He could very well wish it so, you never know with that boy,' said Gruis before taking another drink out of his cup or something like that.

Harry tensed up as he realised this was exactly what the guy was talking about. Here he was in this pathetic disguise trying to get money out of Gringotts to walk away from everything just to make his dream come true.

'Gruis, stop drinking already! You're making us look bad,' hissed Lyrae, which sounded louder than any of the shouting that Gruis did.

'I'll bad mouth him as much as I want!' shouted Gruis.

'I'm sorry to say this but I need to ask ya' to get out of her',' said Tom all of a sudden.

'What?' asked Gruis as he drew his wand from a casing near his waist.

'I can stand ya' drunk'n ramblings but ya' have seem to have had forgott'n that the Wizardin' World owes a great deb' to 'arry Potter from getting' rid of he-who-shall-not-be-named in the first place. So please get out and don' com' back until ya've gott'n a better appreciation of 'arry Potter,' said Tom, his back was hunched (that much Harry could see) and he had a spare cloak on one of his arms (probably) but he never looked to powerful and superior to anyone Harry knew for ages.

He looked calm and in control of everything, not even breaking a sweat when Gruis poked him in the cheek with either a wand or the newspaper or when the wand lit up ready to have a spell placed upon him (it was a wand in his face as not even Harry thought that newspapers could light up).

'Gruis, let's go already. I did not come here just for you to get drunk on me,' said Lyrae before walking over to the bar and placing something (probably the money that was owed) on the bar and walking out. Gruis growled before walking after her.

Tom walked over to Harry and Harry suddenly remembered to look at the ground.

'Her' but I'll walk ya' up to the gate just in case,' said Tom handing over the cloak, which Harry quickly tied on to hide his Muggle clothing.

'T-thanks,' said Harry as he watched his feet head in the direction of the alleyway of the pub and Diagon Alley. It was quite a dizzy feeling watching his feet, when all his feet were to him were a blur of colour.

They walked in silence until they got to the alleyway and Harry rummaged through his backpack to find his wand.

'Wha' I said ther', it was all true. We do have a great deb' ta' 'arry Potter even if some don' remember that. Ya' should pull up da' hood so nobody sees ya' face. I'll tap for ya' but don' place ya' wand back, keep it on ya' at all times. Thes' are dark times and are only getting' darker,' said Tom before waiting to make sure Harry had pulled up his hood and turning to the wall to tap the wall in the correct order.

The wall slowly opened up to allow Harry through as he slowly walked through.

'Good luck, Mr Potter,' whispered Tom as Harry walked passed him leaving Harry with a quickened heartbeat and he turned around but the wall had already closed. Harry decided to quickly pass through Diagon Alley, which wasn't hard as almost everything was bare and looked like a ghost street with many wanted flyers stuck on the walls.

Harry went up to examine a few…and then a few more…and another wall just to check again.

Quite a lot of the walls still had Sirius Black wanted on them lined up with other criminals, quite commonly Bellatrix Lestrange. It made Harry want to tear them down in anger, to collect all the wanted posters of his Godfather and keep them safe, to burn all of the flyers of Bellatrix Lestrange but he didn't. He couldn't afford to do that with Gringotts so close to him that he could almost touch the marble building.

There were more armed Goblins stationed around the building, eying strangers that got too close to the building even the ones on business.

Harry tried not to shiver as he passed one and through his blurred vision raised something pointy to him.

_You fear, fear itself. You fear, fear itself. You fear, fear itself. You don't fear blurred vision or pointy objects that you can't make out._

Harry calmly walked to a teller as there wasn't much business around that time.

'My name is Gibberspike. What do _you_ want?' asked the Goblin giving Harry a sneer before going back to weighting some gems with a few bars of metal.

'I wish to go to my account, I want to make a withdrawal,' said Harry trying not to take it personally that the Goblin thought that the gems were more important than Harry.

'Do you have your key?' asked Gibberspike, it sounded quite patronising actually. Harry couldn't tell if Gibberspike could out patronise Snape or not.

'Well, no but I do have identification,' said Harry and really hoped that what he had planned would work.

'No key, no withdrawal,' said Gibberspike as he glared at Harry as if insulted that he didn't have a key ready beforehand.

Harry looked both ways before pulling his hood off and grabbing his glasses from his pocket (they weren't broken) and putting them on. He also pulled his fringe up to show his scar.

'No key, no withdrawal,' repeated Gibberspike, not in the least interested in the fact Harry tried to identify himself in such a way.

'How can I identify myself then?' asked Harry, annoyed that it didn't work.

'A key or a blood ritual identification,' said Gibberspike and Harry felt his hopes being crushed. A key that he did not have and doesn't know where it is or a blood ritual, which he had been reassured by Ron many times, is a dark art that only dark wizards use.

'Merlin's beard,' whispered Harry as he realised why nobody really likes Goblins. They're dark creatures. Harry swallows and opened his mouth before closing it again.

'I-I'll go with the blood ritual,' said Harry, his voice was shaking as he realised he was probably going to go to Azkaban now. Gibberspike looked at Harry and gave him the most terrifying grin ever full of teeth that a shark would be envious of.

'Riperblade! Show this young man to the blood ritual identification office,' shouted Gibberspike towards what seemed to be a small army of Goblins, all lined up in a row before one of them walked forward and toward Harry.

It was one thing to see a Goblin with a sharp weapon that you were walking towards when you have no glasses on and it is quite another to see a Goblin with a sharp weapon walking _towards_ you.

It was like comparing night and day; no matter what time it is there is still a sky.

So this comparison goes like: it was like comparing walking to and standing still; there was still a Goblin with a sharp weapon at the end of it.

Harry had to resist the idea of running away or drawing his wand or something else stupid like that.

'Over this way,' said Riperblade before walking away again leaving Harry with his jaw hanging and wasn't that the most anti-climatic meeting ever?

Harry couldn't help notice that Riperblade had a low and quite mean (by mean Harry meant dangerous) sounding voice like he just came out of killing a few humans and wasn't bothered at all with killing another one, or was that just Harry over thinking things?

Harry had to run after Riperblade because despite being shorter than Harry by about half his height (not that he was particularly tall) the Goblin moved rather fast. Riperblade had to stop and wait for Harry a few times before Harry started to just jog to keep up with Riperblade.

_What are they putting in their water?_ _I wonder if it works on humans…_

A few long twists and turns brought the pair to an office merely labelled "Blood Ritual Office" on a plaque next to the door.

'In here,' said Riperblade, though it was more like he just grunted out all of the words, and stood waiting until Harry stepped into the office. Riperblade had to wait a few minutes before Harry went through and probably committed a serious offence to the Wizarding World.

The office wasn't what Harry expected for it to be, for one it wasn't a cave and didn't have a huge cauldron where dark wizards meet up. It appeared to be a simple cream office with stone tables and a Goblin sitting behind the table with many pieces of parchment on every flat surface.

'Hello, my name is Rustslice, what are you in here for?' said Rustslice and it would have had been a friendly opener apart from the fact that Rustslice had a worst sneer than Gibberspike and by worst Harry meant more effective.

'Er, blood ritual,' said Harry.

'Just when I thought you humans couldn't get any stupider they create you,' said Rustslice before giving Harry a glare.

'I meant what type of blood ritual are you in here for, not what you are in here for,'

'Oh! Identification, I'm in here for a-'

'Save it, all I needed to know was that it was an identification blood ritual. Who are you claiming to be?'

'I'm not claiming to be anyone, I am Harry Potter -'

'Come over here,' said Rustslice and by Merlin if that Goblin interrupted Harry one more time he was going to hex the thing, what Hermione says or not!

'At least you can follow instructions,' muttered Rustslice to what appeared to be himself but Harry could still hear him. To think about it Harry hadn't really remembered if there was a difference between Rustslice, Gibberspike or Riperblade. They all seemed to look alike apart from what they were carrying or wearing.

'I hope you do know you are aware that you are getting charged seven sickles per a minute? So for your sake I hope that you are who you say you are,' said Rustslice and maybe Rustslice was more deserving in being called "Snape" than Gibberspike was or ever will be if he keeps this up.

'I need to draw blood from you, so hold your wrist over this bowl and don't say a word. I detest people that talk because they're nervous and my knife might slip, which will also come out on your fees for not getting your blood in the bowl,' If Snape was ever a Goblin and a banker Harry was pretty sure he'd turn out to be like Rustslice. Harry still did what he was told though.

Harry clenched his teeth together and took in deep breaths to relieve the pain of his left wrist being sliced open and Harry really hoped they had something better than a bandaid to cover that up with.

However to Harry's amazement his cut healed over as soon as the knife was taken away from the cut area while the blood from the wound dripped into the bowl from his wrist. It was actually a bit scary and fascinating to see his blood act that way. Harry tried tilting his wrist downwards so that the actual wrist part would hang over the table but it kept its place just dripping the last amount of blood into the bowl and completely ignoring gravity.

'Do you want for me to slice your wrist off? If I do that then you can't get your wrist back as it will heal over,' said Rustslice with his hand grasping the knife in a threatening manner which made Harry forget about his weird fixture with his blood in favour of cradling his wrist to his chest.

_Huh, this feels familiar, what I'm doing currently…I wonder why?_

Rustslice started to chant in a language Harry wasn't familiar with and was probably dead with a long history of being used. The bowl flashed a blue colour and Harry knew he was in for Azkaban now. He just participated in a blood ritual.

'It seems that you are indeed Mr Potter, though I still despair for the humans' sake if this is how you act,' said Rustslice as he reached into the bowl and pulled out a key and a piece of paper. Harry stared at the key then the bowl and back to the key.

'Your key and this transaction will be taken straight out of your vault, would you like to see your lineage or will this be all for now?' asked Rustslice as he held out the key to Harry to take. Harry ran his eyes over the piece of paper (_My lineage_) before dragging his eyes back to key. He wasted enough time here already.

_Next time, next time I will have a look but if I look now I won't put it down until next week._

Harry cleared his thorat.

'No that will be all for today, can someone take me to my vault and how do you do Galleon to muggle money converting?'

'Galleon to muggle money…we'll show you to your vault first then we'll get someone to transfer your money. Now get out so I can go back to work, Riperblade is still out there waiting for you,' said Rustslice before turning his attention to Harry's lineage paper. It didn't take a Kneazle to know that he had been dismissed.

When Harry got out of the office with his key in hand he almost jumped because standing there as if he didn't move (_he probably didn't_ thought Harry amazed) was Riperblade.

'This way,' said Riperblade as he led the both of them back to the front part of the building.

'You're back again? Do you have your key?' asked Gibberspike from his counter. Harry was startled by his voice and the fact he was talking to him (but still not looking at him) as Riperblade went back to his place in the small army.

Harry walked over to the teller where Gibberspike was and handed over his key. Gibberspike inspected it before muttering to himself, better than Rustslice was anyway, and nodding.

'Very well, we shall go to your vault,' said Gibberspike as he placed a "closed" sign on the counter and climbed down from his teller. Harry was forced to awkwardly wait for Gibberspike to meet him where he was.

'Don't you have people for that? I mean other Goblins to show me to my vault?' asked Harry as he thought of his first time going to the bank.

'We do but we also have no business as everyone is currently in hiding. There is only so much gem examining that a Goblin can do before we are examining the same gems over and over again,' said Gibberspike as he walked in front of Harry and if Harry had to guess his facial expression it probably would have had been sneering.

The ride down to Harry's vault was as excited as the first time he ever went down however once Harry reached the inside of his vault he found his problem.

'Do you sell any bags that I can place my money in?' said Harry as he awkwardly shuffled his feet around. His backpack was nearly bare threads and seemed as if anything heavier than a stick was placed inside of it the bag would break.

'Our moleskin pouches are for three galleons,'

Harry looked over to the mass of Galleons behind him and back at the Goblin that was trying to sell him a pouch for probably not even a dent in the amount there.

'I guess I'll buy one then,'

'I'll be a moment then,' said Gibberspike as he walked out of the vault leaving Harry alone with his fortune.

_I wonder if I could create my own circus with this amount. If I ever survive that is…should I create a will?_

Something cleared its throat behind him causing Harry to look.

'Your pouch, the fee has already been deduced from your vault,' said Gibberspike handing the pouch over forcefully and gave Harry a glare.

'Do you know if I can Galleon to Muggle money convert?' asked Harry as he started to fill his pouch with Galleons.

'We can do that at the counter,'

'Ace!'

* * *

By the time Harry got out of the bank and out of Diagon Alley into London (he did remember to give back the cloak to Tom however) again it was already around four o'clock by the time he found a public clock anyway. Harry still needed to go to a photo place for a passport and somewhere to eat as well.

He managed to get £875 from one hundred and twenty-five Galleons. He didn't even know that he had one hundred and twenty-five Galleons in his vault! It seemed to diminish some of the Galleons in his vault but there was still quite a lot left in there. All of it was in his moleskin pouch but Harry still felt nervous walking around with that much money on him. You never know who is a pickpocket these days.

Harry found the place to eat first, a small café; it seemed like a quaint place with maroon walls and golden chairs. It also looked quite expensive and Harry felt a little out of place. He wasn't exactly looking smart, not that Harry had ever looked smart in his life apart from the Yule Ball.

Harry decided it was to move on and not bother with the café; he didn't want to waste any of his quid on something that looks like it could cost fifty quid. Instead he tried to look for a shopping mall with any hope a fast food stall. Harry had tried to keep to where the train station was so he could get a quick ride home and get someone to sign his photos, if he ever found the bloody place.

Harry did manage to find a cheaper looking place called "Silverprint Ltd" and it seemed to be full of photography things. Harry adjusted his moleskin pouch to hide it better before walking in.

It was almost empty apart from the person behind the desk and the rows of paper and other things around the place. The whole shop seemed to be made out of wood.

'Watcha, all right?' said the clerk behind the desk. He had a couple of piercings on his ear (which would have had made Aunt Petunia faint) but was immediately countered by his friendly smile, short cropped brown hair and boyish looks. Harry supposed the guy would be good looking to many of the girls back at Hogwarts but something about him just made Harry burn with a sharp and harsh emotion the longer he stared at the guy.

It made him frown.

'Hello, all right? Um, do you do passport photos here?' said Harry hoping that he could get this over and done with.

'No, sorry but we only sell photography items here like printing paper and making photos but we don't do passport photos. We're more of a hobby shop than anything else,' said the guy. Harry tried not to look disappointed but he thinks that he failed at that since the guy gave him a pitying look.

'I'll tell you what; I'll give you directions to get to a Snappy Snap, they do passport photos on the side to raise a bit more money. But it's quite far from here; it'd take you at least half an hour by taxi to get there,'

Harry tried not to give the guy another reason to make him feel pity for Harry but it seemed almost everything yet nothing was on his side.

'I'll ring up a taxi for you,' said the guy before going off to call a taxi using the phone on the desk. Harry tried not to feel suspicious of the guy but so much had happened already and it seemed like the whole world wanted him to go, that or wanted to watch for him to raise his hopes before crushing all of them in one go.

'The taxi will come in a few mo'. Do you mind if I take your photo?' said the guy.

'W-what?' said Harry as he drew his eyebrows together.

'It's my hobby, I take photos of people that come into this shop. I've always thought that a picture tells a thousand words, it's actually my read at uni. Oh-' the guy bent down under the desk for something, giving a groan as he did so, and rummaged around '-I haven't said my name; if my boss saw me he'll be scorning me until the cows come home, the name's David,' said David as he straightened back up holding a heavy looking camera.

'So can I take your photo?' said David eagerly, holding the camera in position.

'I'm sorry I- hmmm I don't like having my photo taken,' said Harry as he looked away from David so he couldn't see what type of expression the guy had in place.

'Hunky-dory , it's fine; some people are just camera shy! This is why I'm always on the other side of the camera,' said David as he carefully placed the camera away. There was a honk from a car outside the shop.

'I guess that's your taxi, you better get in quickly now. Oh! And here's the address, you might be needing it,' said David as he slid a piece of paper that Harry didn't remember seeing before or even see David write on towards Harry.

'Thanks,' said Harry before he pocketed the piece of paper and sent straight outside the shop and into the black taxi waiting for Harry outside.

'Where to?' asked the driver in a harsh and worn out sounding voice as Harry slid in the back. Harry unravelled the piece of paper to check that it really did have an address and handed it over to the taxi driver without a word.

'You don't mind if I call someone, do you?' said the taxi driver as he pulled off the curb and into actual traffic.

'No,' said Harry as he looked outside the window. The rest of the trip in the taxi was in silence and soon enough (with two phone calls that the taxi driver made) the taxi pulled up to a parking spot with a sign saying "NO PARKING NO STANDING" written across it with a threat of a fine if someone was caught. The taxi driver didn't seem to bother with it.

'That'll be forty four quid and thirty-five pence,' said the taxi driver and Harry quickly got out his moleskin pouch and stuck his hand in until he remembered he had to say what he wanted to get his money out. Harry opened the mouth of the pouch wide enough to make it look like he was looking for the money.

'Forty-five quid,' whispered Harry into the bag and nearly got hit in the face with forty-five quid that came rushing up to meet him. He handed over the offending money that tried to hit him in the face with a mental note to take the money out before paying for anything.

The taxi driver looked at him suspiciously but took the money as Harry left the taxi without giving back the change. Harry didn't want the change anyway.

* * *

The Snappy Snap shop was across the road, it had at least one other customer inside and Harry had to wait about five minutes before he was served. The process of getting a passport photo was actually quite easy, you go into the side of the shop, take off your glasses, don't smile and face towards the camera. All very easy even for Harry to manage it. The photos were small and came in an envelope afterwards. The cost wasn't that bad either (in Harry's opinion) and Harry ended up paying fourteen quid for the pictures with a promise not to bend them .

By this time Harry was starving and found a small bakery that was just about to close shop and was selling all the stale breads that they didn't want for tomorrow. Harry ended up buying a semi-stale apricot Danish to eat, a Cornish pasty and a chocolate with "white chocolate" pieces in it muffin, whatever white chocolate was. Harry decided he liked white chocolate but it still wasn't as good as the rest of the muffin .

Harry ended up catching another taxi back to Waterloo Station to save time, the fare for the taxi was a lot cheaper than last time and the trip was a lot faster being only 8 minutes .

Harry had to run once again for the train as he was cutting it a lot thinner than last time but was able to board for the train with a few seconds to spare. Those tellers at the train station were a lot harder to convince to allow him to board the train than last time . Maybe he start arriving earlier to board things?

While on the train back Harry snacked on the Cornish pasty that he bought but kept the Danish in case he didn't make it in time for dinner (which seemed to be the case).

* * *

Harry caught the last bus back to Surrey on the four hundred and seventy-eight bus but the driver wasn't Mrs Rosemary Richmond again, this driver was male, a bit chubby in places and had darker skin that spoke with a foreign accent and was uninterested in what went on behind him.

When Harry got back into Little Whinging the sun had already set, the lamps on the side of the road were on and some cars were still driving by. How was Harry meant to do anything now? He still needed to find a person that knew him for a long time.

'Oh there you are, Harry! I thought that you got kidnapped by the Death Eaters on my watch!' said a very familiar voice. Harry turned around to see Mrs Figg with a few of her cats around her.

'Mrs Figg!' Harry exclaimed with wide eyes. He wasn't expecting her but if he could just…Mrs Figg knew him for a long time.

_Mrs Figg can sign the back of my photos! She's unrelated to me, knew me for a long time and isn't a witch so she's registered!_

'I'm sorry Mrs Figg, I didn't know I caused you that much trouble,' said Harry looking at one of her cats that were starting to crawl closer towards him as if ready to pounce. Harry tried to shuffle away from that one so it wouldn't think it was a game but it kept trying to hit its head against his leg or use his leg as a post to climb on (which really hurt by the way).

'Oh! Fata must really like you! She's new, got given to me by an old friend a few months ago,' said Mrs Figg as she watched one of her cats climb all over Harry causing him to wince.

'Mrs Figg can you do me a favour?' asked Harry as he allowed the creature to use him as a scratching post/ jungle gym while Mrs Figg beamed.

'Of course! Let's go towards my house, we best not be fanny around at night time when we can be at my house,' said Mrs Figg as she led Harry towards her house, which looked no different from every other house on the outside. It still had the same straight cut lawn, white house and was just clean in general, if it weren't from the occasional cat that wondered outside then no one would ever know that it was Mrs Figg's house.

The inside of the house was still the same as well; it still smelt of cabbage and had pictures everywhere, many of them Muggle but a few of them pretended to be Muggle before realising it was okay to talk in front of Harry and a few of them even waved to Harry. Harry waved awkwardly back before giving up not even five seconds later.

Harry rummaged through his bag to get the envelope that the photos were contained in while Fata kept rubbing herself against him. It was quite annoying actually and none of the other cats did this to him, only this new cat.

Harry placed the envelope on the table while Mr Tibbles jumped onto the table to sniffed the envelope before jumping off the table again deeming it a waste of his time.

'Do you mind signing the back of these photos?' said Harry as he watched her make a pot of tea and bring out a cake to cut. It was probably that ancient cake again that Harry hated but was forced to eat because he didn't want to be impolite.

'What are they for?' asked Mrs Figg and Harry cursed in his mind. Of course she was going to ask and she was probably going to report it to Professor Dumbledore as well.

'I thought that- well the Dursleys thought that if I went out of the country, through the muggle way, then I'll be able to hide better and hopefully train better as well,' said Harry hoping that his lie would suffice. Mrs Figg gave him an odd smile, a mixture between grim and amusement.

'Well, if the Dursleys think this is okay then why shouldn't I sign them?' said Mrs Figg as she brought over the tea and cake.

'Go on, eat the cake. I promise it's not stale this time,'

Harry took a plate of cake and brought it to his mouth.

It was actually quite good, fantastic even.

'You hid this cake away from me all this time?' said Harry as he stared at her. Mrs Figg smiled before hiding it away with her tea cup and taking a drink.

'I didn't want the Dursleys to think you were being treated right, now do I?' said Mrs Figg in a teasing voice.

'I guess not,' said Harry reluctantly as he kept eating the cake. Mrs Figg stared at him before sighing.

'Is this what you want?' said Mrs Figg as she shuffled around her chair to allow Tufty to sit on her lap.

'Huh?' said Harry, ever so eloquently.

_I should be given a prize for the most eloquent speaking then I'll be able to actually say something and not just grunting noises like Crabbe and Goyle._

'I mean, do you want a passport?' said Mrs Figg as she seemed to get the idea.

'Er, yes, I mean I do want a passport,' said Harry as he tried the tea and resisted the wince that came with it. It was sweet, too sweet. Harry knew there had to be something wrong with the food and drink.

'Very well, I'll sign them, just at the back right?' said Mrs Figg as she placed Tufty off of her lap and went to grab a pen to sign them with.

'Thank you, I didn't know who else to turn to,' said Harry, the words spilling out of his most and he was surprised to find that all the words he said were all true. This day was just one surprise after another for Harry. It was going so well but Harry knew there was going to be a catch.

Harry watched her sign her name on the back of the photos, he got her to sign them all just in case he lost one, and placed the photos and envelope back in his bag.

'It's late, isn't it? Should I call the Dursleys to pick you up or would you rather stay here?' said Mrs Figg. Harry didn't know which one was worse, going back to the Dursleys and face a possible beating from Uncle Vernon or stay in this home with Fata just around every corner.

'I think it's best for me to stay here,' said Harry staring into his sweetened tea. Harry didn't see Mrs Figg's grim smile as she walked to the telephone.

'I think it's for the best as well, I'll tell them you forgot the time while you were here and I asked you to stay. Go take a shower, you can use the spare bedroom on the second floor to the right,' said Mrs Figg as she started to dial the numbers.

'Thank you,' said Harry as he walked pass her to walk upstairs. He took a quick shower, partly from habit and partly out of gratitude to Mrs Figg so she didn't have to pay a high water bill, and washed his face. There wasn't a spare tooth brush but he figured he could last one day without brushing.

He didn't have a spare set of clothing but he figured it was okay to just wear some boxers and the undershirt to bed.

The bed was already made when he went into the spare bedroom and Fata was already on the pillow as if she was waiting for him. Harry sighed at the thought before going to find Mrs Figg. She was looking over photos in the Living Room, quite possibly of her past cats.

'Good night Mrs Figg,' said Harry as he waited on the bottom of the stairs, hiding the fact he was only in his boxers by awkwardly hiding the bottom half of himself as he was still in the company of a female.

'Good night Harry,' said Mrs Figg as she looked up from her photos and smiled a bit before turning back to them.

As soon as Harry's head hit the pillow (and a bit of Fata) he fell asleep with dreams of shadowed archways and dark headed males. It wasn't a very good dream for Harry that night.

* * *

**Special info time (we'll go from the top instead of just randomly like I seem to do):**

**For those that like to keep a track of days in this chapter the date is the 25th of July, 1996.**

**Piers is one of Dudley's oldest crony/ friend, he was introduced in the first book by going to the zoo with Dudley.**

**I can see Dudley pulling a prank where he's all nice to Harry then telling his dad that Harry stole something of his making Harry deny it thus getting into bigger trouble. It's almost a classic thing to do to get someone in trouble.**

**Time turners are from the third book where Hermione uses them to get to her classes on time as she was taking every single class.**

**The 478 bus to Guildford is a real bus that actually goes go to Guildford and was inn use in 1996. It takes an estimated time of 48 minutes to get to Guildford from Surrey.**

**All right means to ask "Are you all right today?" which you use on strangers and people you're familiar with. The bus driver says "alright" instead of "all right" due to her accent and it isn't a typo.**

**Saying "I'm easy" is not an invitation for sex. It means I'm okay with anything which is why Mrs Rosemary Richmond says "I'm easy but my boss ain't!" which means "I'm okay with anything but my boss isn't okay with me standing here talking while on the job".**

**I originally had the bus driver saying "ta'" instead of "to" until I realised that "ta" means "thanks" in the British slang and had to take everything out and replace it so she wasn't saying thanks every fourth word.**

**You do need to get your passport photos signed by a person that has known you for quite sometime, lived in the country you're trying to get your passport in for a long time and not related to you in order to get your passport. Not many people Harry can turn to for that one. Luckily for us there is such a person without involving OCs, which I have a nasty habit of creating then pushing them out of the picture soon after.**

**I was originally going to get Harry to meet Mrs Rosemary Richmond again but this time make her have cancer but I don't want to make him meet an OC again, they're a one night stand use only these types. If I did give her a personality I guess I would have had made her live through the second World War as a survivor and understand PTSD from her husband, which is why she stopped.**

**I don't think Harry trusts adults very much, he will respect them but not trust them and this is why it is different with Mrs Rosemary Richmond. She has basically no ulterior motives but wanting companionship on the ride to talk to and hasn't shunned Harry for wearing poorly fitted clothing (Dudley's old clothing) or for his pity party. She doesn't know him or where he came from, she only knows that he wants a ride on the bus and that's basically all. So I can see Harry trusting this type of person.**

**I wasn't too sure about the price for the train ride (one-way) as the train station website didn't have any info or wikipedia but I do know they changed their prices in 2002 from one price all the time to two separate prices depending on what time of day you are getting on. I estimated that the ride one-way would cost 10 quid as the prices would seem very high for going into London. The trains however do go every 15 minutes and Harry would have had gone on the Class 455 train from Waterloo, London to Waterloo, London via many places including Guildford (too many places to list anyway). The train Harry is on is owned by South West Trains.**

**I'm also just guessing that you can't get refunds that or the nameless OC was just a prat.**

**prat means jerk or asshole. It is only semi-rude but not enough to be a swear word.**

**To chivvy along means to hurry along.**

**Watcha/ wotcher/ wotcha means something like "Hiya" so basically it is a greeting.**

**I couldn't resist Tom the Landlord of The Leaky Cauldron sticking up for Harry. If you ever saw him in the movies you'd be probably like "Erugh, what is that?" but Tom needs more love and love I gave him. I mean, how many fanfics have you read with the sole focus on Tom? Yeah, neither have I.**

**Lyrae and Gruis are Latin versions of the names of stars, so just like Draco is a name of a star Lyrae and Gruis are as well. I read in an essay that the naming theme of Harry Potter Wizarding families varies depending on the family. The Blacks use stars, the Malfoys use Roman and Greek famous plays and the McGonagalls use Roman God and Goddesses it seems from Professor McGonagall's name. So I went with the theme.**

**With the Goblins' names I just stuck random words with either blade techniques or weaponry. Gibberspike's name comes from Gibberish (my self proclaimed first language) and a Mace, where it is all spiky.**

**Riperblade comes from ripe as in "that fruit is ripe for the picking" and blade as in a sword.**

**Rustslice comes from the colour of blood when it dries and slicing, a technique used with any knife or sword or lance/axe/everything with a sharp blade.**

**I don't think that the blood ritual used by the Goblins would have had been illegal by Wizarding standard but Harry has heard a lot about the dark arts from Ron. So he would be concerned.**

**Ace means brilliant, once again.**

**The currency conversion for Galleons to pounds for me is a 1:7 ratio where 1 Galleon is equal to 7 pounds. This isn't a standard conversion for Galleons to pounds but is the one that I use for Harry's sake in this story otherwise the conversion is more like 1:5 ratio.**

**My conversion is: **

0.00203 knutsx29= 1 sickle

0.0588 sickles x17=1 galleon

1 galleon= 7 pounds

**The amount of money (£875) that Harry withdrew in US terms (in today's currency) is worth $1397.90 and worth $1479.73 AUS.**

**Silverprint Ltd is a real place. They were established in 1984 and I was going to originally use that shop for Harry's passport until I realised they're a hobby shop which means that don't do passport photos and OTL. The interior does seem to have a lot of reddish brown wood inside with many pigeonholes fully of material for photography including paper however I've never been there, just looked at their website.**

**To ring up someone means to call them, not charge them for their groceries.**

**When David refers to his "read" he means his major at school/ university.**

**University is the equivalent of College.**

**Hunky-dory means that it's fine and no worries.**

**I'm pretty sure that Snappy Snap would have had existed in 1996 however I'm not too sure. Snappy Snap is however real and the closest one from Silverprint was in Victoria Street, which is like 31 minutes away by car including traffic. Snappy Snap is on the other side of the river. They do passport photos there as well. I'm pretty sure we have Snappy Snaps where I'm from as well in the city part.**

**I was originally going to make David give Harry his number but decided against it last minute. It was going to go like "Here's my number if you need any help I'll be happy if you called me" and Harry going "...as if I'm ever going to call" and binning it without realising that he was being hit on.**

**Hit on means to be flirted with.**

**Cornish pastries are real and were invented by miners from Cornwall. I did a history subtopic on Cornish pastries during year 8. Year 8 is the same as Grade 8.**

**Mrs Figg did confess in the fifth book that she deliberately gave Harry stale cake and made his time as unpleasant as possible so that Harry could continue to keep coming back there so she could watch over him every year. **

**Fata comes from the Latin word "Fate" and is the root word of Fae and Fairy. I was originally going to call her Ninfia or Ninfiona but it never happen due to my bad naming skills. Also X and Y! Woot!**

Sorry for having to read so much unless you like that kind of stuff. If you do like that stuff then I was happy to be of service!

Thanks to:

Jully Reed, Ceti H. Black, xeno96, foxy2015, harrykirk, Inixion, TamayoNomura and Vuurvlieg for following!

Dolxe, The New Master of Evil, harrykirk, Inixion, angelskky and Xireana Zetsubou for favouriting!

harrykirk for favouriting me!

harrykirk and Loumaria for following me!

**If at any time Harry starts sounding like a 15 year old girl please tell me so I can kill that sound out.**


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